6/-^3 


ALUMNI  LIBRARY, 
THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY, 

PRINCETON,  N.  J, 


Case, 
Shelf, 


«^^< 


I 


"^^Q-^ 


Division 


Sec-  i 


4. 


I)  W.VNO /:m..l 


•  # 


V--. 


THE 

.    OF 

RELIGIOUS  CONTROVERSY, 

^  A  FRIENDLY  CORRESPONDENCE, 

BETWEEN 

A  RELIGIOUS  SOCIETY  OF  PROTESTANTS, 

AND 

A  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  DIVINE. 

IN  TrtREE  PARTS. 

WMMX  I.     OH   THB    RULE    OF    F-UTH ;    OR,    THE    METHOD    OF    riNOIHO    OHT   »»■ 

TRUE    RELIGION. 

PART   II.     ON   THE    CHARACTERISTICS    OF   THE    TRUE    CHURCH. 
MAT   III.     ON    RECTXFTING    MISTAKES    CONCERNING    THE    CATHOLIC    CHURCH. 


BY  THE  RT.  REV.  JOHN  MILNER, 

».  ».  T.  A.  F.  S.  A.  LONDON,  AND  CATH.  ACAD.  ROME. 


Jdirtited  to  the  Rt.  Rev.  Dr.  Burgess,  Lord  Bishop  of  St.  Datid'i,  m  Jnnctr 
to  his  Lordship^s  Protestant's  Catechism. 


>     '       TO  WHICH  IS  ADDED  THE  AUTHOR's  POSTSCRIPT. 


BALTIMORE : 

PVBIASHKD  BY  FIELDING  LUCAU,  JUn'i 

No.  138  Market  street. 


.^thosetreat.ouharsia^whoa.n.^q;^^^^ 


»  U^  those  treat  you  harshly,  who  are  ^f^'^^^^^.^^  harshly,  who  know  not 
a^STto  truth  and  ^--/V"L' nSuchce       Let  hose  Lat  you  harshly,  who  have 
ow  hard  it  is  to  get  rid  of  old  Pf*^J"^^9J^-,,  ,ru  L.jo,.  eye  and  vender  it  capahle  of 
noUearned  how  very  lard  it  is  to  purify  the   uteuoi  c  e  an  ^^^  ^^^  ^^^  ^^ 

contemplating  the  sun  o:  tue  soul,  tiuth.    ^^^^^^  ,  ^    ^^rrors  of  their  own 

rsHtowards  Per^o.^  who  are  separated  A^^^^^^^  ^^  for  from  this  dis- 

Lvention,  but  by  being  ^^^f^f^^  nreVthS  the  false  opinions  of  those,  whom 
position  that  we  pray  to  O.d,  t^^^^' .^^^^^^^^^^  ^ould  bestow  upon  us  that 


rct~;i""»"~i"*'---"' 


.There  are  -ny  other  «iing.^ieh^^I^-^^ 

Church.     The jg'reement  t^^^^^^  -^            .^^^^^ J^^       ^^^f "t^of 

authority  established  b>  Miracles  n.^  .accession  of  bishops  in  tbe  See  of 

confirmed  by  antiquity,  keeps  me  mer       1  ^^      ^^^^  resurrection,  committed  hi6 

St.  Peter,  the  apostle,  ^^  ^;hom  oar  ^on  -xttu  i      ^^^  ^^^^^^_                  ^^^^ 

Epist.   Fundain.  c.  4. 
fioints,  p.  60. 


.  The  object  of  lhei.(*eCa4o,j^X-^^^^^^^  h^umS^Mdilu,;^ 


"  The  object  of  their  (the  Catholics)  ='''3';»  "^T  humanity,  which  humanity 
trueind  etirnal  God,  l>ypostat,c^y.{^-^i7'„"  t'2,Ztal  Ji'gn. :.  and  if  they 
they  believe  actuaUy  P'f  J"  »"^f  ^^'^Jf  omVor^hipping  the  bread  m  tl.«  ca.«, 

rar*.sim^i"°s'pSVt\rrdi!J;-  to  do  ^.»  t.  i--,  r„v/.r,  ^.^  <, 

JMfum.  UJberty  o/propbc^jingydm.^  ^ 


CONTENTS. 


FART  L 

LETTER  I.  ***■ 

Introduction.  __ 

Mr.  Brown'*  Apology  to  Dr.  M.  Account  of  the  Friendly  Society  of  New 
Cottage         -•------.! 

ESSAY  I. 

On  the  Existence  of  God  and  Natural  Religion,  by  the  Rev.  Samuel  Carer. 
LL.D. -     4 

ESSAY  II. 
On  the  truth  of  the  Christian  Religion,  by  Do.  .  .  *  •      8 

LETTER  II. 

To  James  Brown,  Esq. 

Dr.  M 's  Conditions  for  entering  on  the  Correspondence.    Freedom  ot 

Speech.     Sincerity  and  Candour.     A  Conclusive  Method  -  -    13 

LETTER  in. 

From  James  Brown,  Esq. 
Agreement  to  the  Conditions  on  the  part  of  the  Society  .  .  -    15 

LETTER  IV. 

To  James  Broivn,  Esq, 
Dispositions  for  success  in  Religious  Inquiries.     Renunciation  of  prejudices, 
passions,  and  vicious  inclinations.     Fervent  prayer  -  -  -    16 

LETTER  V. 

To  James  Broion,  Esq. 
Rule  or  Method  of  finding  out  the  True  Religion.     Christ  has  left  a  Rule. 
This  Rule  must  be  sure  and  unerring.     It  must  be  adapted  to  the  capacity 
and  situations  of  the  bulk  of  mankind  -  -  -  -  -     i8 

LETTER  VI. 
To  James  Brown,  Esq. 
First  fallacious  Rule ;  Private  Inspiration.    This  has  led  numberless  Christians' 
into  errors,  impiety  and  vice,  in  ancient  and  in  modern  times.     Account 
of  Modern  Fanatics,  Anabaptists,  Quakers,  Moravians,  Swedenborgians, 
Methodists,  &c.        -  -  -  -  -  .  -  -20 

LETTER  VIL 

To  James  Brmcn,  Esq. 
Ol^ctions  of  certain  Members  of  the  Society  answered  -  -  S9 


lir  Contents, 

LETTER  VIII. 

To  James  Brown,  Esq. 
Second  fallacious  Rule  ;  the  Scripture  according  to  each  person's  particular 
interpretation  of  it.  Christ  did  not  intend  that  mankind,  in  general,  should 
learn  his  Religion  from  a  Book.  No  Legislator  ever  made  Laws  without 
providing  Judges  and  Magistrates  to  explain  and  enforce  them.  Dissen- 
sions, divisions,  immorality,  and  infidelity,  which  have  arisen  from  the  pri- 
rate  interpretation  of  Scripture.  Illusions  of  Protestants  in  this  matter. 
Their  inconsistency  in  making  Articles,  Catechisms,  &c.  Acknowledgment 
.of  learned  Protestantij  on  tliis  head  -  -  -  -  -    38 

LETTER  IX. 

To  James  Brmon,  Esq. 
The  subject  continued.  Protestants  have  no  evidence  of  the  Inspiration  of 
Scripture  :  nor  of  its  authenticity  :  nor  of  the  fidelity  of  their  copies :  nor  of 
its  sense.  Causes  of  the  obscurity  of  Scripture :  Instances  of  this.  The 
Protestant  Rule  afibrds  no'  ground  for  Faith.  Doubts  in  wliich  those  who 
follow  it  live  and  also  die      -  -  -  -  -  -  -    44 

LETTER  X. 

To  James  Brown,  Esq. 
The  True  Rule,  namely.  The  Whole  Word  of  God,  unwritten  as  well  as  writ- 
ten,  subject  to  the  interpretation  of  the  Church.  In  this  and  in  every  other 
country,  the  written  law  is  grounded  upon  the  unwritten  law.  Christ 
taught  the  Apostles  by  word  of  mouth,  and  sent  them  to  preach  it  by  word 
of  mouth.  This  method  was  followed  by  them  and  their  disciples  and  suc- 
-"essors.     Testimonies  of  this  from  the  Fathers  of  the  five  first  centuries  5S 

LETTER  XI. 

To  James  Brown,  Esq.  « 

The  subject  continued.  Protestants  forced  to  have  recourse  to  the  Catholic 
Rule,  in  different  instances.  Different  instances  of  this.  Their  vain  at- 
tempts to  adopt  it  in  other  instances.  Quibbling  evasions  of  the  Articles, 
Canons,  Oaths,  and  Laws  respecting  uniformity.  Acknowledged  necessity 
of  deceiving  the  people.  Bishop  Hoadleythe  patron  of  this  hypocrisy.  The 
CathoUc  Rule  confessed  by  Bishop  Marsh  to  be  the  Original  Rule.  Proofs 
that  it  has  never  been  abrogated.  Advantages  of  this  Rule  to  the  Church 
ftt  large,  and  to  its  individual  members        -  -  -  -  -    61 

LETTER  Xn. 
To  Jarnes  Brown,  Esq. 
Objections  answered.     Texts  of  Scripture.     Other  objections.     Illusory  de- 
clamation of  Bishop  Porteus.     The  advice  of  Tobias,  when  he  sent  his  Son 
'*»to  ji  strange  country,  recommended  to  the  Society  of  New  Cottage  -    75 


Contents.  T 

PART  11. 

Pagt, 
LETTER  XIII. 

To  Janus  Broivn,  Esq. 
Congratulation  with  the  Society  of  New  Cottage  on  their  acknowledgment 
of  the  right  Rule  of  Faitli.     Proof  that  the  Catholic  Church  alone  is  pos- 
sessed of  this  Rule.     Cliaracters  or  Marks  of  the  True  Church      -  -    86 

LETTER   XIV. 

To  James  Brown,  Esq. 
Unify,  the  First  Mark  of  the  True  Church.     This  proved  from  Reason— from 
Scripture— and  from  the  Holy  Fathers  -  -  -  -  -    90 

LETTER  XV 

To  James  Brown,  Esq. 
Want  of  Unity  among  Protestants  in  general     This  acknowledged  by  their 
eminent  writers.     Striking  instances  of  it  in  the  EstabUshed  Church.   Vain 
attempts  to  reconcile  diversity  of  behef  with  uniform  Articles         -  -    92 

LETTER  XVL 

To  James  Brown,  Esq. 

Unity  of  the  Catholic  Church— in  Doctrine— in  Liturgy— in  Government,  and 
Constitution  --..-.--98 

LETTER  XVIL 

To  Dr.  M.  from.  James  Broion,  Esq. 
Objections  against  the  exclusive  claims  of  CathoUcs.     Extract  of  a  letter  from 
tiie  Rey.  N.  N.  Prebendary  of  N.    Bishop  Watson's  doctrine  on  this  head    102 

LETTER  XVin. 

To  James  Brown,  Esq. 
Objections  answered.     Bishop  Watson,  by  attempting  to  prove  too  much, 
proves  nothing.    Doctrine  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  the  Fathers  on  this 
head.    Exclusive  claim  of  the  Cathohc  Church  a  proof  of  her  truth  -  103 

LETTER  XIX. 

To  James  Brown,  Esq. 
Second  Mark  of  the  True  Church,  Sanctity.     Sanctity  of  doctrine  wanting  to 
the  different  Protestant  Communions— to  Luther's  system— to  Calvin's— to 
that  of  the  Established  Church— to  those  of  Dissenters  and  Methodists, 
Doctrine  of  the  Catholic  Church  Holy  -  -  -  -  -  108 

POSTSCRIPT. 
Variations  and  impiety  of  the  late  Rev.  John  Wesley's  doctrine  -  -  115 

LETTER  XX. 

To  Jam£S  Brown,  Esq. 
Means  of  Sanctity.  The  Seven  Sacraments,  possessed  by  Catholics.  Pro- 
testants possess  none  of  them,  except  Baptism.  The  whole  Liturgy  of  the* 
Established  Church  borrowed  from  the  Catholic  Missal  and  Ritual.  Sa- 
crifice the  most  acceptable  worship  of  God.  The  most  perfect  Sacrifice 
offered  in  the  Catholic  Church.  Protestants  destitute  of  Sacrifice.  Other 
laeans  of  Sanctity  in  the  Cathohc  communion"        -  -  -  119 


vi  Contents. 

Page, 

LETTER  XXI. 

To  James  Brown,  Esq. 
Fruits  of  Sanctity.     All  the  saints  were  Catholics.     Comparison  of  eminent 
Protestants  with  contemporary  Catholics,     immorality  caused  by  changing 
the  Ancient  ReUgiou  -  -  -  -  -  126 

LETTER  XXn. 

To  Mr.  J.  Toulmin. 
Objections  answered.     False  accounts  of  the  Church  before  the  Reformation, 
so  called.     Ditto  of  John  Fox's  Martyrs.     The  vices  of  a  few  Popes  no 
impeachment  of  the  Church's  Sanctity.     Scriptural  practices  and  exercises 
commoa  among  Catholics  but  despised  by  Protestants        -  -  -  130 

LETTER  XXIII. 

To  Janus  Brown,  Esq. 
Dirine  Attestation  of  Sanctity  in  the  Catholic  Church.  Miracles  the  Crite- 
rion of  Truth.  Christ  appeals  to  them,  and  promises  a  continuation  of 
them.  The  Holy  Fathers  and  Church  writers  attest  their  continuation,  and 
appeal  to  them,  in  proof  of  the  True  Church.  Evidence  of  the  Truth  of 
many  Miracles.  Irreligious  scepticism  of  Dr.  Conyer's  Middleton :  this 
undermines  the  Credit  of  the  Gospel.  Continuation  of  miracles  down  to  the 
preMiUt  time :  living  witnesses  of  it  -  -  -  -  -  133 

LETj  ER  XXiV. 

To  Jarats  Brown,  Esq. 
Objections  answered.  False  and  unauthentica*ed  miracles  no  disproof  of  true 
and  authenticated  ones.  Strictness  of  the  exaiiiinvit/on  of  reported  miracles 
at  Rome.  Not  necessary  to  know  God's  design  in  working  each  miracle. 
Examination  oi  the  arguments  of  celebrated  Protestants  against  Catholic 
miracles.  Objection  of  Gibbon  and  the  late  bishop  of  Salisbury  (Dr^  John  : 
Douglass)  agaiu'st  St.  Bernard's  miracles  refuteu.  St.  Xavier's  miracles 
proved  from  the  authors  quoted  against  them.  Dr.  Middieton's  confident 
assertion  clearly  refuted.  Bishop  Douglass's  Coitdvsive  Evidence  from 
Acosta  against  St.  Xavier's  miracles  clearly  reiuicd,  by  tiie  testimony  of  the 
said  Acosta.  Testimony  of  Ribadeneiru  <oncerning  St.  ignatius's  miracles 
truly  stated.  True  account  of  the  miracle  of  Saragossa.  impostures  at  the 
tombof  Abb6  Paris.  Refutation  of  the  Rev.  Peter  Robert's  pamphiet,  con- 
ctjfning  the  miracuiou  i  cttrc  vi  Winefrid  White        -  -  -  -  14§ 

\^  LETTER  XXV. 

To  James  Brown,  Esq. 
The  True  Church  Catholic.  "   Always  Catholic  in  name,  by  the  testimony  of 
the  Fathers.     Still  distiugui-sji^^ed  by  that  name  in  spite  of  all  opposition      -  153 

LETTER  XXVI. 

To  jaines  Brown,  Esq. 
(Qualities  of  Catholicity.   The  Church  Catholic  as  to  its  m^ipbers :  as  to  its  ex- 
tent J  as  to  its  duration.     The  origiuiii  Church  of  this  country        -  -  166 

LETTER  XXVII. 

To  James  Brown,  Esq. 
Objections  of  the  Rev.  Joauah  Clark  answered.     Existence  of  an  inviaibU 
Church  disproved.     Vain  attempt  to  trace  the  toiisteiice  of  Protestantism 
through  the  discordant  heresies  of  former  ages.     Vain  Prognostication  of 
tbe  failure  of  the  True  Church.     Late  attempt*  to  undermine  u      -  -  1€8 


contents.  vfi 

Page- 
LETTER  XXVIII. 

To  James  Brown,  Esq. 
The  True  Church,  Apostolical :  so  described  by  the  ancient  Fathers.    APOS- 
TOLICAL TREE  of  the  Catholic  church  explained,  by  a  brief  account  of 
the  Popes  and  of  distinguished  Pastors,  also  of  nations  converted  by  her, 
and  of  heretics  and  schismatics  cut  off  from  the  True  Church         -  -  166 

LETTER  XXIX. 

To  James  Brown,  Esq. 
Apostolical  succession  of  Ministry  in  tlie  Catholic  Church.  Among  Protest- 
ant Societies  the  Church  of  England  alone  claims  such  succession.  Doc- 
trine and  conduct  of  Luther,  and  of  different  Dissenters  on  this  point.  Un- 
certainty of  the  Orders  of  the  Established  Churcli  from  the  doctrine  of  its 
founders— from  the  history  of  the  times— fi-om  the  defectiveness  of  the  form. 
Apostolic  Mission,  evidently  wanting  to  all  Protestants.  They  cannot  show 
an  ordinary  mission :  they  cannot  work  miracles  to  prove  an  extraordinary 
one  ------..-_  177 

LETTER  XXX. 

To  James  Brown,  Esq. 
Objections  of  the  Rev.  Josuah  Clark  answered.  Apostolical  ministry  not  in- 
terrupted by  the  personal  vices  of  certain  Popes.  Fable  of  Pope  Joan  re- 
futed. Compariaon  between  the  Protestant  and  the  Cathohc  Missions  for 
the  conversion  of  Infidels.  Vain  prediction  of  conversions  and  of  refor- 
mation by  the  Bible  Societies.  Increase  of  crimes  commensurate  with  that 
of  the  Societies        -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  186 

POSTSCRIPT. 
Eocapitvlation  of  things  proved  in  the  foregoing  Letters  -  191 


viii  Contents, 

PART  in. 

Page, 
LETTER  XXXI. 
To  the  Rev.  J.  JSI.  D  D. 
Introduction.     Effects  produced  by  the  foregoing  Letters  on  the  minds  of 
Mr.  Brown,  and  others  of  his  Society.   This  in  part  counteracted  by  the  Bi- 
shop of  London's  (Dr.  Porteus'  )  Charges  against  the  Catholic  Religion       -  197 

LETTER  XXXII. 

To  James  Brown,  Esq, 
Observations  on  the  Charges  in  question.  Impossibility  of  the  True  Church 
being  guilty  of  tliem.  Just  conditions  to  be  required  by  a  Catholic  Divine 
in  discussing  them.  Calumny  and  misi-epresentation  necessary  weapons 
for  the  assailants  of  the  True  Church.  Instances  of  gross  calumny  publish- 
ed by  eminent  Protestant  writers,  now  living.  Effects  of  these  calumnies. 
No  Catholic  ever  shaken  in  his  faith  by  them.  They  occasion  the  conver- 
sion of  many  Protestants.  They  render  their  authors  dreadfully  guilty  be- 
fore God      -    _       -      .      199 

LETTER  XXXin. 

To  James  Broion,  Esq. 
Charge  of  Idolatry.  Protestantism  not  originally  founded  on  this.  Invoca- 
tion of  the  Prayers  of  Angels  and  Saints  grossly  misrepresented  by  Protest- 
ants :  truly  stated  from  the  Council  of  Trent,  and  Catholic  Doctors.  Vindi- 
cation of  the  practice.  Evasive  attack  of  the  Bishop  of  Di.rham:  Retorted 
upon  his  Lordship.  The  practice  recommended  by  Luther :  vindicated  by 
distinguished  Protestant  Bishops.  Not  imposed  upon  the  faithful :  highly 
consoUng  and  beneficial       -  -  -  -  -  -  20$ 

LETTER  XXXIV.  • 

To  James  Brown,  Esq. 
Religious  Memorials.~  Doctrine  and  practice  of  Catholics,  most  of  all,  mis- 
represented on  this  head.  Old  Protestant  versions  of  Scripture  corrupted 
to  favour  such  misrepresentation.  Unbounded  calumnies  in  the  Homilies, 
and  other  Protestant  publications.  True  doctrine  of  the  Catholic  Church 
defined  by  the  Council  of  Trent,  and  taught  in  her  books  of  instruction. 
Errors  of  Bishop  Porteus,  in  fact  and  in  reasoning.  Inconsistency  of  his 
own  practice.  No  obligation  on  CathoUcs  of  possessing  pious  images,  pic- 
tures, or  reUcs  ..------  213 

LETTER  XXXV. 

To  the  Rev.  Robert  Clayton,  M.  A. 
Objections  refuted.    That  the  Saints  cannot  hear  us.    Extravagant  addresses 
to  Saints.     Want  of  candour  in  explaining  them.   No  evidence  of  the  Faith 
of  the  Church.     Notorious  falsehoods  of  the  Bishop  of  London,  concerning 
the  ancient  doctrine  and  practice     ------  219 

LETTER  XXXVI. 

To  James  Brown,  Esq. 
Transubstantiation.  Important  remark  of  Bishop  Bossuet  concerning  it.  Ca- 
tholics not  worshippers  of  bread  and  wine.  Acknowldgement  of  some 
eminent  Protestants.  Disinpenuity  of  others,  in  concealing  the  main  ques- 
tion and  bringing  forward  another  of  secondary  importance.  The  Luthe- 
rans and  the  most  respectable  Prelates  of  the  EstabUshment  agree  with  Ca- 
tholics on  the  main  point     .  -  -  -  -  223 


Contents.  Ix 

LETTER  XXXVII. 

To  James  Brown,  Esq. 
Tite  Real  Presence,  Variations  of  the  Established  Church  on  this  point  In- 
consistency of  her  present  doctrine  concerning  it.  Proofs  of  the  Real  Pre- 
sence from  Christ's  promise  of  the  Sacrament ;  from  his  institution  of  it 
The  same  proved  from  the  ancient  Fathers.  Absurd  position  of  Bishop 
Porteus,  as  to  the  origin  of  the  tenet.  The  reaUty  strongly  maintained  by 
Luther.  Acknowledged  by  the  most  learned  English  Bishops  and  Divines. 
Its  superior  excellence  and  sublimity  .  -  -  -  -  826 

LETTER  XXXVIII. 
To  the  Rev.  Jiobert  Claytmi,  M  A. 
Objections   ansAvered.     Texts  of  Scripture   examined.     Testimony  of  tte 
ienses  weighed-     Alleged  Contradictions  disproved  ...  SM 

LETTER  XXXIX. 

To  James  Brown,  Esq. 
Communion  under  one  or  both  kinds  a  matter  of  discipline.  Protestants 
forced  to  recur  to  Tradition  and  Church  discipline.  The  blessed  Eucharist 
a  Sacrifice  as  well  as  a  Sacrament.  As  a  Sacrifice,  both  kinds  necessary; 
w>  a  Sacrament,  whole  and  entire  under  either  kind.  Protestants  receive 
DO  Sacrament  at  all.  The  apostles  sometimes  administered  the  communion 
under  one  kind.  The  Text,  1  Cor.  xi.  27,  corrupted  in  the  English  Pro- 
testant Bible.  Testimonies  of  the  Fathers  for  communion  in  one  kind.  Oc- 
casion of  the  ordinances  of  St.  Leo  and  Pope  Galasius.  Discipline  of  the 
Church  different  at  different  times  in  this  matter.  Luther  allowed  of  com- 
munion in  one  kind;  also  the  French  Calvinists;  also  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land. -         -         -         -         '^^     •         •         1       _  r  ^ 

-::s^^p:^^*^   LETTER  XL^    -^"^^-i^:;"-; ">■•; 

To  James  Brown,  Esq. 
Excellence  of  Sacrifice.  Appointed  by  God.  Practised  by  all  people,  ex- 
cept Protestants.  Sacrifice  of  the  New  Law,  promised  of  old  to  the  Chris- 
tian Church.  Instituted  by  Christ.  The  Holy  Fathers  bear  testimony  to  it, 
and  performed  it.  St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  HebrcAvs  misinterpreted  by  the 
Bishops  of  London,  Lincoln,  kc.  Deception  of  talking  of  the  Popish  Mass. 
Inconsistency  of  Established  Church  in  ordaining  Priests  without  having  a 
Sacrifice.  Irreligious  invectives  of  Dr.  Hey  against  the  Holy  Mass,  without 
Ills  understanding  it!-  -  -  -  .  .  .  ]{4S 

LETTER  XLL 
To  the  Rev.  Robert  Clayton,  M.  A. 
Abeolution  from  sin.  Horrid  misrepresentation  of  Catholic  doctrine.  Real 
doctrine  of  the  Church,  defined  by  the  Council  of  Trent.  This  pure  and 
holy.  Violent  distortion  of  Christ's  words  concerning  the  forgiveness  of 
sins,  by  Bishop  Porteus.  Opposite  doctrine  of  Chilhngworth :  and  of  Lu- 
ther and  the  Lutherans :  and  of  the  Estabhshed  Liturgy.  Inconsistency  of 
Bishop  P.  Refutation  of  his  arguments  about  confession  :  and  of  his  asser- 
tions concerning  the  ancient  doctrine.  Impossibility  of  imposing  this  prac- 
tice on  mankind.  Testimony  of  Chillingworth  as  to  the  comfort  and  bene- 
fit of  a  good  confession         .......  ^49 

LETTER  XLII. 
To  the  Rev.  Robert  Clayton,  M  A. 
Indulgences.    Unsupported  false  definition  of  them  by  the  Bishop  of  London. 
His  further  calumnies  on  tlie  subject.     Similar  calumnies  of  other  Protest- 
ant Prelates  and  Divine*.     The  genuine  doctrine  of  Catholics.    No  permii- 

B 


X  Contents, 

sion  to  commit  sin.  No  pardon  of  any  future  sin.  No  pardon  of  sin  at  all. 
No  exemplion  from  contrition  or  doing  penance.  No  transfer  of  superfluous 
holiness.  Retortion  of  the  charge  on  the  Protestant  tenet  of  imputed 
justice.  A  mere  relaxation  of  temporal  punishment.  No  encouragement 
of  vice;  but  rather  of  virtue.  Indulgences  authorized  in  all  Protestant  So- 
cieties. Proofs  of  this  in  the  Church  of  England.  Among  the  Anabaptists. 
Among  the  ancient  and  modern  Calvinists.  Scandalous  Bulls,  Dispensa- 
tions, and  Indulgences  of  Lutlier  and  his  disciples  -  -  258 

LETTER  XLIII. 

To  the  Rev.  Robert  Clayton,  M.  .i. 
Purgatory  and  Prayers  for  the  dead.  Weak  objection  of  Dr.  Porteus  against 
a  middle  state.  Scriptural  arguments  for  it.  Dr.  P's  Appeal  to  Antiquity- 
defeated.  Testimonies  of  Lutherans  and  English  Prelates  in  favour  of 
Prayers  for  tlie  Dead.  Eminent  modern  Protestants,  avIio  proclaim  a  Uni- 
versal Purgatory.     Consolations  attending  the  Catholic  belief  and  practice  265 

LETTER  XLIV. 

To  the  Rev.  Robert  Ckylon,  M.  .'?. 
Extreme  Unction.     Clear  proof  of  this  Sacrament  from  Scripture.     Impiety 
and  inconsistency'  of  the  Bisliop  in  .slighting  this.     His  Appeal  to  Antiquity 
refuted 272 

LETTER  XLV. 
To  the  Rev.  Robert  Clayton,  M.  A. 
Antichrist :  Impious  assertions  of  Protestants  concerning  him.     Their  absurd 
iand  contradictory  systems.     Retortion  of  the  charge  of  Apostasy,     Other 
charges  against  the  Popedom  refuted  -----  275 

:f^':^,  .  .  LETTER  XLVL 

"^  '  "  -'-•^'  "  2^0  the  Rev.  Robert  Clatjton,  M.  Jl. 

The  Pope's  Supremacy  truly  stated.  His  spiritual  authority  proved  from 
Scripture.  Exercised  and  acknowledged  in  the  primitive  ages.  St.  Gre- 
gory's contest  with  the  Patriarch  of  C.  P.  about  the  title  of  (Ecumenical. 
Concessions  of  eminent  Protestants  -----  282 

LETTER  XLVII. 

To  James  Brown,  Jun.  Esq. 
The  language  of  the  Liturgy  and  Reading  the  Scriptures.     Language  a  mat- 
ter of  discipline.     Reasons  for  the  Latin  Church  retaining  the  Latin  Lan- 
guage.    Wise  economy  of  the  Church  as  to  reading  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
Inconsistencies  of  the  liible  Societies  -----  293 

LETTER  XLVIII. 

To  .James  Brown,  Jun.  Esq. 
Various  misrepresentations.  Canonical  and  Apocryphal  books  of  Scripture. 
Pretended  invention  of  five  new  Sacraments.  Intentfen  of  Ministers  of  the 
Sacraments.  Continence  of  the  Clergy— Recommended  by  Parliament. 
Ad>antages  of  fasting.  Dt-position  of  Sovereigns  by  Popes  far  less  fre- 
quent than  by  Protestant  Reformers.  The  bishop's  egregious  falsehoods 
respecting  the  primitive  Church        .-.---  2S9 

LETTER  XLIX. 

To  James  Broxon,  Jan.  Esq. 
Helipious  Persecution.      The  Cjtliolic  Church  cUiims  no  right  to  inflict  san- 
guinary punishments,  but  disclaims  it.     The  right  of  temporal  Princes  and 


Conientt,  xi 

Page. 

states  in  this  matter.  Meaning  of  Can.  3,  Lateran  iv.  truly  slated.  Queen 
Mary  persecuted  as  a  Sovereign,  not  as  a  Catholic.  James  II.  deposed  for 
refusing  to  persecute.  Retortion  of  the  charge  upon  Protestantr^  the  most  ef- 
fectual way  of  silencing  them  upon  it.  Instances  of  persecution  by  Pro- 
testants in  every  Protestant  country :  in  Germany:  in  Switzerland:  at  tie- 
neva,  and  in  France :  in  Holland :  in  Sweden :  in  Scotland :  in  England. 
Violence  and  long  continuance  of  it  here.  Eminent  loyalty  of  Catholics. 
Two  circumstances  which  distinguished  the  persecution  exercised  by  Ca- 
tiiolic^  from  that  exercised  by  Protestants     -  -  -  30S 

LETTER  L. 

To  the  Friendly  Society  of  J^ew  Cottage. 

Conclusion.  Recapitulation  of  points  proved  in  these  letters.  The  True 
Rule  of  Faith :  The  True  Church  of  Christ.  Falsity  of  the  Charges  allcge«i 
against  her.  An  equal  moral  evidence  for  the  Catholic  as  for  the  Christian 
Religion.  The  former,  by  the  confession  of  its  adversaries,  the  safer  side. 
No  security  too  great  where  Eternity  is  at  stake !      -  -  -  -321 


A  POSTSCRIPT 

To  the  second  Edition  of  the  Address  to  the  Right  Rev.  the  Lord  Bishop  of 
6L  David's,  occasioned  by  Im  Lordship's '  Om  Word  to  the  Rev.  Dr  jlfitoer.'  3^7 


ADDRESS, 


TO 

THE  RIGHT  REVEREND 

LORD  BISHOP  OF  ST,  DAVID'S. 

My  Lord, 

THE  following  Letters,  with  some  others  belonging  to  the 
same  series,  were  written  in  the  latter  part  of  the  year  1801,  and 
the  first  months  of  1802,  though  they  have  since  that  time  been 
revised,  and,  in  some  respects,  altered.  They  grew  out  of  the 
controversy,  which  the  principal  writer  of  them  was  obliged  to 
sustain  against  an  eminent  author,  a  prebendary  of  the  cathedral, 
and  the  chancellor  of  the  diocese  of  Winchester,  who  had  person- 
ally challenged  him  to  the  field  of  argument,  in  a  book,  called 
Reflections  on  Popery.  That  controversy  having  made  some  noise 
in  the  public,  and  even  in  the  houses  of  parliament,  particularly 
in  the  upper  house,  where  the  lord  chancellor,*  and  a  predecessor 
of  your  lordship,  then  the  light  and  glory  of  the  established 
church,t  expressed  opposite  opinions  on  the  issue  of  it,  certain 
powerful  personages  expressed  an  earnest  wish  for  its  termina- 
tion. For  this  purpose,  the  usual  method  of  silencing  authors 
was  at  first  resolved  upon  with  respect  to  the  writer,  and  a  Ca- 
tholic gentleman  of  name,  still  living,  was  commissioned  to  sound 
him  on  the  business :  but,  in  conclusion,  it  was  thought  most  ad- 
visable to  employ  the  influence  which  the  prelate  alluded  to  had 
so  justly  acquired  over  him.  Tliis  method  succeeded  ;  and,  ac- 
cordingly, these  Letters,  whicli,  otherwise,  would  have  been  pub- 
Ushed  fifteen  years  ago,  have  slept  in  silence  ever  since. 

I  trust  your  lordship  will  not  be  the  person  to  ask  me,  why  the 
Letters,  after  having  been  so  long  suppressed,  now  appear? — You 
are  witness,  my  lord,  of  the  increased  and  increasing  virulence  of 

*  The  Right  Hon.  the  Earl  of  Loughborough.  , 

t  The  Eight  Rev.  Dr.  Horsely,  successively  bishop  of  St.  David's,  Roches- 
ter, and  St.  Asaph's. 


ii  Address, 

the  press  against  Catholics  ;  and  this,  in  many  instances,  directed 
hj  no  ignoble  or  profane  hands.  Abundant  proofs  of  this  will  be 
seen  in  the  following  work.  For  the  present,  it  is  sufficient  to 
mention,  that  one  of  your  most  venerable  colleagues  publishes  and 
re-publishes,  that  we  stand  convicted  of  idolatry^  blasphemy,  and 
sacrilege.  Another  proclaims  to  the  clergy,  assembled  in  Synod, 
that  we  are  enemies  of  all  law,  'human  and  divine.  More  than  one 
of  them  has  charged  us  with  the  i^uilt  of  that  Anti-Christian  con- 
spiracy on  the  continent,  of  which  we  were  exclusively  the  vic- 
tims. This  dignitary  accuses  us  of  Antinomiamsm  ;  that  main- 
ains  our  religion  to  be  fit  only  for  persons  weak  in  body  and  in 
nind.  In  short,  we  seldom  find  ourselves,  or  our  religion,  men- 
tioned in  modern  sermons,  or  other  theological  works,  unaccom- 
panied with  the  epithets  of  supcrstilious,  idolatrous,  impious,  dis- 
loyal, perfidious,  and  sanguinary.  One  of  the  theologues  alluded 
to,  who,  like  many  others,  has  gained  promotion  by  the  fervour  of 
his  NO  POPERY  zeal,  has  exalted  his  tone  to  the  pitch  of  pro- 
claiming that  our  religion  is  calculated  for  the  meridian  of  hell!  ! — 
Thus  solemnly,  and  almost  continually,  charged  before  the  tribu- 
nal of  the  public,  with  crimes  against  society  and  our  country,  no 
less  than  against  religion,  and  yet  conscious,  all  the  while,  of  our 
entire  innocence,  it  is  not  only  lawful,  but  also  a  duty,  \vhich  we 
owe  to  our  fellow-subjects  and  ourselves,  to  repel  these  charges, 
by  proving  that  there  was  reason,  and  religion,  and  loyalty,  and 
good  faith  Simony  Christians,  before  Luther  quarreled  with  Leo 
X.,  and  Henry  VIIL  fell  in  love  with  Ann  Bullen;  and  that,  if 
we  ourselves  have  not  yet  been  persuaded  by  the  arguments,  either 
of  the  monk  or  the  monarch,  to  relinquish  the  faith  'originally 
preached  in  this  island,  above  1300  years  before  their  time,  we 
are,  at  least,  possessed  of  common  sense,  virtuous  principles,  and 
untainted  loyalty. 

The  writer  miglit  assign  anotlier  reason  for  making  the  present 
publication;  namely,  the  number  and  acrimony  of  his  own  public 
opponents  on  subjects  of  religion.  To  say  nothing  of  the  ground- 
less charges,  by  word  of  mouth,  of  certain  privileged  personages, 
the  following  writers  are  some  of  those  who  have  published  books, 
pamphlets,  essays,  or  notes  against  him,  on  subjects  of  a  religious 
nature ;  the  deans  of  Winchester  and  Peterborough;  chancellor 
Sturges ;  prebendary  Poulter;  the  doctors  Hoadly,  Ash,  Rvan, 
Ledwich,  Le  Mesurier,*  and  Elrington ;  Sir  Richard  Musgrave, 

*  •  To  one  only  objection  of  hi;;  adversaries,  the  w^er  wishes  here  to  give 
an  answer,  that  of  having-  quoted  fakeh/  ,•  which,  liowever,  has  been  advanced 
by  very  few  of  them,  and  is  confined,  as  far  as  he  knows,  to  two  instances. 
The  first  of  these,  is,  that  the  writer,  in  his  History  of  Winchester,  vol.  i.  p. 
61,  **  quotes  Gildas,  for  the  exploits  of  king  Artlmr,  who  never  once  men- 
tions his  name."  This  objection  was  first  started  by  Dr.  O'Conor,  in  his  Co- 
lumbanus,  was  borrowed  from  him,  by  tlie  Kcv.  Mr.  I^e  Mesurier,  in  his 
Bampton  Lectures,  and  was  adopted  from  tlie  latter  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Grier,  in 
his  Answer  to  Ward's  Errata. — After  all,  this  pretended /yr^cr_y  of  the  writer. 


Address.  iii 

John  Reeves,  Esq.  the  Reverend  Messrs  Williamson,  Bazeleyi 
Churton,  Grier,  and  Roberts ;  besides  numerous  anonymous  rifle- 
men in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine,  the  Monthly  Magazine,  the 
Anti-Jacobin  Review,  the  Protestant  Advocate,  the  Antibiblion, 
and  other  periodical  works,  including  newspapers.  By  some  of 
these  he  has  been  challenged  into  the  field  of  controversy,  and 
when  he  did  not  appear  there,  he  has  been  posted  as  a  coward. 

A  still  more  cogent  reason,  my  lord,  for  the  appearance  of  this 
work,  which  was  heretofore  suppressed,  at  the  desire  of  a  former 
bishop  of  St.  David's,  has  been  furnished  by  his  present  successor, 
in  the  work  the  latter  has  lately  published,  called  THE  PRO-  - 
TESTANT'S  CATECHISM.  This  is  no  ordinary  effusion  oi 
NO  POPERY  zeal.  It  was  not  called  for  by  the  increase  of  the 
ancient  religion  in  his  lordship's  diocese,  which  teems  with  Me- 
thodist jumpers,  to  t^ie  danger  of  his  cathedral  and  parish  church- 
es being  left  quite  empty  ;  while  not  one  Catholic  family,  is,  per- 
haps, to  be  found  in  it.  It  was  not  provoked  by  any  late  attempt 
on  the  established  church,  or  on  Protestantism  in  general ;  as  the 
bishop  does  not  pretend  that  such  thing  has  taken  place.  Never- 
theless he  comes  forward  in  his  Episcopal  mitre,  bearing  in  his 
hands  a  nevr  Protestant  Catechis^n,  to  be  learnt  by  Protestants  of 
every  description,  which  teaches  them  to  hate  and  persecute  their 
elder  brethren,  the  authors  of  their  Christianity  and  civilization  ! 
In  fact,  this  Christian  bishop,  begins  and  ends  his  Protestant  Cate- 
chism,  with  a  quotation  from  a  Puritan  regicide,  declaring,  that 
**  Popery  is  not  to  be  tolerated,  either  in  public  or  in  private,  and 
that  it  must  be  thought  how  to  remove  it,  and  hinder  the  growth 
thereof:"  adding,  "  if  they  say,  that,  by  removing  their  idols  we 
violate  their  consciences,  we  have  7io  warrant  to  regard  conscience, 
which  is  not  grounded  on  Scripture."*    This,  jour  lordship  must 

i 
will  be  found,  on  consulting  the  passag-e  referred  to  above,  to  be  nothing 
else  but  a  blunder  of  his  critics  ;  since  it  will  appear  that  he  quotes  William, 
of  Malrtisbury,  for  the  exploits  of  Arthur  and  Gildas,  barely  for  the  year  in 
which  one  of  them,  the  battle  of  Mons  Badonicus,  took  place  !  The  second 
accusation  of  this  nature,  was  inserted  by  one  of  the  above  named  writers,  in 
the  Gentleman's  Magazine,  namely,  that  the  wa-iter  had  advanced,  without 
any  historical  authority,  that  James  I.  used  to  call  November  5,  **  Cecil's  holi- 
day." In  answer  to  this  charge,  he  gave  notice  in  the  next  number  of  the 
Magazine,  that  he  had  sent  up  to  the  editor's  office,  as  he  had  done,  there  to 
remain,  during  a  month,  for  pubhc  inspection,  lord  Castlemaln's  Catholique 
Jipology,  which  contains  the  fact,  and  the  authorities  on  which  it  is  advanced. 
The  writer  is  far  from  claiming  inerrancy  ;  but  he  should  despise  himself,  if 
he,  knowingly,  published  any  falsehood,  or  hesitated  to  retract  any  one  that 
he  was  proved  to  have  fallen  into. 

•  Milton's  prose  works,  vol.  4.  The  prose  writings  of  this  secretary  of  the 
Long  parliament  are  execrable,  for  their  regicide  and  anti-prelatic  principles, 
as  his  poetry  is  super-excellent  for  its  sublimity  and  sweetness.  Four  other 
■English  authors  are  brought  forward,  by  the  bishop  of  St.  David's,  to  justify 
that  persecution  of  Catholics,  which  he  recommends.  The  first  of  these  is 
the  Socinian  Locke,  who  will  not  allow  of  Cathohcs  being  tolerated,  on  the 
demonstrated  false  pretext,  that  they  cannot  tolerate  other  Christians.    The 


IT  Address. 

i^now,  is  the  genuine  cant  of  a  Mar-Preate  Independent ;  the  same 
cant  which  brought  Laud,  and  Charles  I.  to  the  block  ;  the  same 
cant  which  overthrew  the  church  and  state  in  the  grand  rebellion. 
But  what  chieflj  concerns  my  present  purpose,  in  this,  the  bish- 
op's twice  repeated  quotation  from  Milton,  is  to  observe  that  it 
breathes  the  whole  persecuting  spirit  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and 
calls  for  the  fines  and  forfeitures,  dungeons  and  halters,  and 
knives,  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  against  the  devoted  Catholics  ;  since, 
it  is  evident,  that  the  idolatry  of  Popery,  as  it  is  termed,  exercised 
inprivatCy  cannot  be  removed  without  such  persecuting  and  san- 
guinary measures.  The  same  thing  is  plain  from  the  nature  of 
the  different  legal  offences  which  the  Right  Rev.  prelate  lays  to 
their  charge.  In  one  place,  he  accuses  the  Catholics  of  England 
and  Ireland,  that  is  to  say,  more  than  a  quarter  of  his  majesty's 
European  subjects,  of"  acknowledging  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Pope, 
in  defiance  of  the  laws,  and  of  the  allegiance  due  to  their  rightful 
sovereign  :^^  though  he  well  knows,  that  they  have  abjured  the 
Pope's  jurisdiction  in  all  civil  and  temporal  cases,  which  is  all  that 
the  king,  lords  and  commons  required  of  them,  in  their  Acts  of 
1791  and  1793.  Again,  the  prelate  describes  their  opposition  to 
the  veto  (though  equally  opposed  in  the  appointment  of  their  re- 
spective pastors  by  all  Protestant  dissenters,  who  constitute  more 
than  another  fourth  part  of  his  majesty's  subjects,)  as  "  treasona- 
ble by  statute,^^  p.  35.  Now,  every  one  knows  that  the  legal  pun- 
ishment of  a  subject,  acting  in  defiance  of  his  allegiance,  and  con- 
tracting the  guilt  of  treason,  is  nothing  less  than  death.  Nay,  so 
much  bent  on  the  persecution  of  Catholics  is  this  modern  bishop, 
as  to  arraign  parliament  itself  as  guilty  of  a  breach  of  the  Consti- 
tution, by  the  latter  of  the  above  mentioned  tolerating  Acts ; 

true  cause  was,  that  his  hands  hc'mg  stained  by  the  blood  of  twenty  innocent 
CathoHcs,  who  were  immolated  by  the  saug-uinary  pohcy  of  his  master  Shafts- 
bury,  in  Gates*  infamous  plot,  he  was  oblig-ed  to  find  a  pretext  for  excludinp^ 
them  from  the  legal  toleration,  which  he  stood  in  need  of  himself. — Bishop 
Hoadly,  who  had  no  relig-ion  at  all  of  his  own,  would  not  allow  the  Catholics  to 
enjoy  theirs,  because,  lie  says  ;  *'  no  oaths  and  solemn  assurances,  no  regard  to 
truth,  justice,  or  honour,  can  restrain  tliem."  This  is  the  hypocritical  plea 
tor  intolerance,  of  a  man  who  was  in  the  constant  habit  of  violating  all  his 
oaths  and  engagements  to  a  churcli  which  had  raised  him  to  rank  and  for- 
tmie,  and  who  syst^maticall)-  pursued  its  degradation,  into  his  own  auti- 
Christian  Socinianism,  by  professed  deceit  and  treachery,  as  will  beseenintlie 
l.etters. — Hlackstone,  being  u  crown  lawyer,  and  writing  when  the  penal 
laws  were  in  force,  could  not  but  defend  tiiem  :  but,  judge  as  he  was,  and 
>mting  at  the  above  mentioned  time,  he,  in  tlie  passjig-e  following  that  quoted 
by  Dr.  Burgess,  exjiressed  a  hope,  that  the  time  "  was  not  distant,  Mhenthe 
fears  of  a  Pretender  having  vanished,  and  the  influence  of  the  Pope  becom- 
ing feeble,  the  rigorous  edicts  against  the  Catliolics  would  l)c  revised,"  b.  iv. 
c,  4.  ;  which  event,  accordingly,  soon  took  place.  As  to  Burke,  the  last  au- 
thor  whom  the  bishop  quotes  against  Catholic  emancipation,  it  is  evident, 
from  his  speecli  at  Bristol,  his  letter  to  lord  Kenmai'e,  and  the  whole  tenor  of 
his  conduct,  tliat  he  was  not  only  a  warm  friend,  but,  in  some  degree,  a  mar* 
tyr  to  it. 


Address.  '    ^ 

where  he  says :  "  If  the  elective  franchise  be  really  inconsistent 
with  the  Constitutional  Statutes  of  the  revolution,  it  ought  to  be 
repealed,  like  all  other  concessions,  that  are  injurious  to  loyalty 
and  religion.^^ — He  adds,  "But  it  does  not  follow  that  because 
parliament  had  been  guUfy  of  one  act  of  prodigality,  that  it  should, 
therefore,  like  a  thoughtless  and  unprincipled  spendthrift,  plunge 
itself  into  inextricable  ruin,"  pp.  oo,  54.  Thus,  my  lord,  though 
the  prelate  alluded  to,  after  advertising,  in  his  table  of  contents. 
A  CONCLUSION,  showing  "  the  means  of  co-operating  with  the 
laws  for  preventing  the  danger  and  increase  of  Popery,"  when  he 
comes  to  the  proper  place  for  inserting  it,  apologizes  iov  deferring 
its  publication,  as  "  being  connected  with  the  credit  of  the  ecclesi- 
astical establishment,^^  yet,  we  see  as  clearly,  from  the  substance 
and  drift  of  the  ProtestanVs  Catechism,  what  his  Conclusion  is,  as 
if  he  had  actually  published  it;  namely,  he  would  have  the  whole 
code  of  penal  laws,  with  all  their  incapacities,  fines,  imprison- 
ment, hanging,  drawing,  and  quartering,  re-enacted,  to  prevent 
even  iho,  private  practice  of  idolatry  ;  and  he  would  have  the  bish- 
ops, clergy,  churchwardens,  and  constables,  employed  in  enforc- 
ing them,  according  to  the  forms  of  Inquisition,  prescribed  by  the 
Canons  of  1597,  1603,  and  1640. 

Before  the  writer  passes  from  the  present  subject  of  loyalty 
and  the  laws,  to  others  more  congenial  with  his  studies,  and  those 
of  the  prelate,  he  wishes  to  submit  to  your  lordship's  reflection 
two  or  three  questions  connected  with  it.  First:  Is  it  strictly 
legal,  even  for  a  lord  of  parliament,  and  is  it  edifying  for  a  bish- 
op, to  instruct  the  public,  especially  in  these  days  of  insubordi- 
nation and  commotion,  that  the  reigning  king,  and  the  two  houses 
of  parliament,  have  acted  against  the  Constitutional  Statutes,  by 
affording  religious  relief  to  a  large  and  loyal  portion  of  British 
subjects;  as  king  William,  George  I.  and  George  II.  had  afforded 
it  to  other  portions  of  them  ?  We  all  know  what  outcries  are  con- 
tinually raised  about  violating  the  Constitution,  and  we  know 
what  effect  these  are  intended  to  produce  :  now,  if  a  turbulent 
populace  are  made  to  believe  that  the  present  legislature  has 
acted  illegally  and  unconfititutioncdly  in  some  of  its  acts,  is  there 
no  danger  that  they  may  form  the  same  notion  concerning  some 
of  its  other  acts,  which  are  peculiarly  obnoxious  to  them,  and  that 
they  may  rank  these  among  the  Fictitious  Statutes,  as  this  prelate 
terms  the  Acts  of  Parliament  of  three  former  reigns  ? — Secondly: 
"The  writer  wishes  to  ask  your  lordship,  whether  or  no  you  think 
it  is  for  the  peace  and  safety  of  the  sister  isle,  to  alarm  the  bulk 
of  its  inhabitants  with  the  threat  of  their  being  dispossessed  of 
the  elective  franchise,  which  thev  have  now  enjoyed  for  a  quarter 
of  a  century?  In  like  manner,  is  it  conducive  to  this  important 
end,  for  a  person  of  his  lordship's  character  and  consequence  to 
assure  this  people,  that  the  Pope's  jurisdiction,  and  Englafid^J 
dominion  over  them,  "  were  introduced  into  Ireland  by  the  mer- 

C 


VI 


•Address. 


cenary  compact  of  the  Pope  and  Henry  II."  p.  24,  "founded  on 
a  fiction  of  the  grossest  kind,  the  pretended  donation  of  Constan- 
tine,"  p.  V.  though,  by  the  bye,  this  was  never  once  mentioned  or 
hinted  at  by  either  of  the  parties  ? — Lastly:  The  writer  would  be 
glad  to  be  informed  by  your  lordship,  whether  it  is  for  the  advan- 
tage of  the  established  church  so  highly  to  extol  John  Wickliffe, 
who  maintained  that  clergymen  ought  to  have  no  sort  of  temporal 
possessions  ?  And  is  it  for  the  security  of  the  state  to  hold  up 
lord  Cobham  as  *'  a  great  and  good  man,  and  the  martyr  of  Pro- 
testantism," p.  vii.',  who  was  convicted  in  the  King's  Bench,  and 
in  open  parliament,  of  raising  an  insurrection  of  twenty  thousand 
men,  for  the  purpose  of  killing  the  king  and  his  brother,  and  the 
lords  spiritual  and  temporal,  and  who  was  executed  for  the  same, 
merely  because  he  was  a  WkkliffiJe?  How  innocent  was  colonel 
Despard,  compared  with  sir  John  Oldcastle,  called  lord  Cobham! 
The  writer  has  spoken  of  the  object  of  the  publication  which 
has  lately  appeared,  under  the  name  of  a  Rt.  Rev.  bishop  of  the 
established  church:- he  now  proceeds  to  say  something  of  its^con- 
tents.  > 

■-    It  professes  to  be  THE   PROTESTANT'S   CATECHISM. 
From  this  title,  most  people  will   suppose  it  to  be  an  elementary 
booky  for  the  instruction  of  Protestants  of  every  description^  in  the 
doctrine  and  morality  taught  by  Jesus  Christ :  but  not  a  word  can 
the  writer  find  in  it  about  Christ,  or  God,  or  any  doctrinal  matter 
■whatever ;  except  that,  "  They,  who  do  not  hold  the  worship  of 
the  church  of  Rome  to  be  idolatrous,  are  not  Protestants,  what- 
ever they  may  profess  to  be,"  p.  46. ;  which  is  a  sentence  of  ex- 
communication against  many  of  the  brightest  lights  and  chief  or- 
naments of  the  bishop's  own  church.     Nor  does  this  novel  Cate- 
chism contain  any  moral  or  practical  lesson;  except  that,  "  Every 
member  of  parliament's  conscience  is  pledged  against  the  Ca- 
tholic claims;"   and,  what  has  been  mentioned  before,  that  as 
*'  Popery  is  idolatrous,  it  is  not  to  be  tolerated  either  in  public  or 
in  private,''^  and  that  "  it  must  be  now  thought  how  to  remove  it," 
p.  3.     Had  the  Catechism  appeared  without  a  name,  it  might  be 
supposed  to  be  a  posthumous  work  of  lord  George  Gordon;  but, 
had  its  origin  been  traced  to  the  mountains  of  Wales,  it  would 
certainly  be  attributed  to  some  itinerant  Jumper,  rather  than  to  a 
successor  of  St.  Dubritius  and  St.  David.  What,  liowever,  chiefly 
distinguishes   y/ie  FroUstunt  Catvchism  from  other  No  Popery 
publications,  is,  not  so  nmch  the  strength  of  its  acrimony,  as  the 
boldness  of  its  paradoxes.  These,  for  the  most  part,  stand  in  con- 
tradiction to  all  ancient  records  and  modern  authors,  Protestant 
as  well  as  Catholic,  being  supported   by  the  bare  word  of  the 
bishop  of  St.  David's :  and  what  is  still  more  extraordinary,  they 
sometimes  stand  in  contradiction  to  the  word  of  the  bishop  of  St 

*  See  Walsingham's  Historia  Major.  Knj^hlon  Lexcest.  Collier's  Eccic* 
Hiat.  Stow,  5tc. 


Mdress,  vS 

David's  himself;  resting  in  this  case,  on  the  word  of  Dr.  Tho- 
mas Burgess,  I  purpose  exhibiting  a  few  of  the  paradoxes  I  refer 
to. 

The  great  and  fundamental  paradox  of  the  Right  Rev.  Catechist 
is,  that  Protestantism  subsisted  many  hundred  years  before Fopery; 
at  the  same  time  that  he  marks  its  essence  consist  in  a  renuncia- 
tion of,  and  opposition  to,  Popery!  for  his  lordship  lectures  his  Pro- 
testant pupils  in  the  following  manner:  "Question.  What  is 
Protestantism  r  Answer.  The  abjuration  of  Popery  and  the  ex- 
clusion of  Papists  from  all  power,  ecclesiastical  and  civil."  p.  12L 
"  Question.  What  is  Popery  r  Answer.  The  religion  of  the 
church  of  Rome,  so  called  because  the  church  of  Rome  is  sub- 
ject to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Pope."  p.  11.  "Question.  When 
was  this  jurisdiction  assumed  over  the  whole  church.?  Answer. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  century."  p.  15.  The  writer 
does  not  here  refute  the  various  errors  of  the  Right  Rev.  bishop 
on  these  heads ;  this  refutation  will  be  found  in  the  following 
letters ;  he  barely  exhibits  one  of  the  bishop's  leading  paradoxes. 
It  may  be  here  stated  as  another  very  favourite  paradox  of  the 
prelate,  since  he  has  maintained  it  in  a  former  work,  that,  be- 
cause Venantius  Fortunatus,  a  poet  of  the  sixth  century,  sings 
that  "  the  stylus,  or  writings  of  St.  Paul,  had  run  east,  west,  north 
and  South,  and  passed  into  Britain  and  the  remote  Thule,"  and 
because  Theodoret,  an  author  of  the  fifth  century,  says,  "  St.  Paul, 
brought  salvation  to  the  islands  in  the  sea,"  (namely,  Malta  and 
Sicily,  Acts  xxvii.)  it  follows  that  the  British  church  wdis  founded 
by  St.  Paul!  p.  19.*  This  paradox  might  be  stated  and  even 
granted,  for  any  thing  it  makes  in  favour  of  the  bishop's  object, 
which  is  to  invalidate  the  supremacy  of  St.  Peter.  For  it  mat- 
ters not  which  apostle  founded  this  church  or  that  church,  while 
it  is  evident  from  the  words  of  Christ,  in  St.  Matthew,  c.  xvi.  v. 
18,  and  in  other  texts,  and  from  the  concurring  testimony  of  the 
fathers,  and  all  antiquity,  that  Christ  built  the  whole  church  on 
the  foundation  of  the  apostles  and  prophets,  he  himself  being  the 
chief  corner  stone,  so  as  still  to  ground  it,  next  after  himself,  on 
the  Bock,  Peter.t  This  will  be  found  demonstrated  in  the  follow- 
ing work,  Letter  xlvi.  A  third  paradox  of  the  prelatic  Catechist 
is  this :  Having  undertaken  to  prove  that  "  The  church  of  Rome 

*  The  falsity  of  this  inference  and  the  weakness  and  unfiiirness  of  the  bi- 
shop's arg-uments  on  the  whole  subject,  have  been  well  exposed  by  an  able 
and  learned  writer,  the  Rev.  John  Ling-ard,  in  his  Examination  of  Certain 
Opinions  advanced  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  BurgesSy  &c.  1813.  Syers,  Manchester; 
Keating'  and  Brown,  London. 

fThe  Rig^ht  Rev.  prelate  seems  to  have  been  forced  out  of  his  former  ca- 
vil  concerning  the  difference  of  gender  between  UtTpoc  and  HeT/i*  in  the  text. 
Matt.  xvi.  by  a  learned  colleag-ue  of  his  [Landaff  from  remote  ag-es  was  a 
thorn  in  the  side  of  Menevia]  who  has  shown  him  that  Christ  did  not  speak 
Greek  but  Syriac,  and  on  this  occasion,  made  use  of  the  word  Cephas,  Mockt 
which  admits  of  no  variation  of  g'enders. 


viii  Address, 

was  founded  by  St.  Paul,'*  p.  13,  no  less  than  the  church  of  Bri- 
tain, he  attempts  to  draw  an  argument /rom  their  different  disci- 
pline m  the  observance  of  Easter;  that  the  latter  was  "indepen- 
dent" of  the  former,  p.  23.  Hence  it  would  follow  that  St.  Paul 
established  one  discipline,  that  which  the  prelate  himself  now 
follows,  at  Rome  ;  and  another,  "that  of  the  church  of  Ephesus, 
and  the  eastern  churches,  in  Britain,"  p.  17.  The  truth  is,  his 
lordship  has  quite  bewildered  himself  in  the  ancient  controversy 
about  the  right  time  of  keeping  Easter.  He  will  learn,  however, 
from  the  following  letters,  that  the  British  church  originally 
agreed  with  thatof  Rome,  in  this,  no  less  than  in  the  other  points, 
as  the  emperor  Constantine  expressly  declares  in  his  letter  on 
that  subject,*  and  as  farther  appears  by  the  Acts  of  the  Council 
of  Aries,  which  the  British  bishops,  there  present,  joined  with  the 
rest  in  subscribing.  And  when,  after  the  Saxon  invasion,  the 
British  churches  got  into  a  wrong  computation,  they  did  not  fol- 
low that  of  the  Asiatic  Quarto-decimans,  but  always  kept  Eas- 
ter-day on  a  Sunday,  diftering  from  the  practice  of  the  continent 
once  only  in  seven  years.  A  fourth  paradox  of  the  Catechism 
maker,  is,  that,  admitting,  as  he  does,  the  existence  of  our  Chris- 
tian king,  Lucius,  in  the  second  century,  he,  nevertheless,  rejects 
his  conversion  by  the  missionaries  of  Pope  Eleutherius,  Fagatius 
and  Duvianus,  as  "  a  mere  Romish  fiction,  and  a  monkish  fable," 
p.  23;  notwithstanding  both  facts  rest  on  exactly  the  same  au- 
thority, namely,  that  of  all  the  original  writers,  British,  Saxon, 
English,  Roman,  and  Gallic.t  A  fifth  paradox  of  the  bishop's,  is, 
that  "  The  British  churches  were  Protestant  before  they  were 
Popish,"  p.  23 :  "six  centuries  elapsed  before  Popery  had  any 
footing  in  this  island,"  p.  28  ;  and  that  "the  British  bishop's 
showed  their  independence  of  the  Pope's  authority  by  rejecting 
the  overtures  of  Austin,  and  by  refusing  to  acknowledge  any  au- 
thority but  that  of  their  own  metropolitan,"  p.  24.  And  yet  it 
is  demonstrated  that  the  British  bishops  were  present  not  only 
at  the  Councils  of  Aries  and  Nice,  which  acknowledged  the  Pope's 
authority,  but  also  that  of  Sardica  in  Illyrium,  held  in  347,| 
where  the  right  of  appeal  to  tiie  Pope  in  all  ecclesiastical  causes, 
from  every  part  of  the  world,  was  confirmed.§  It  is  equally  cer- 
tain, that  in  the  former  part  of  the  following  century.  Pope  Ce- 
lestine  sent  St.  Palladius  to  convert  the  Scots,  St.  Patrick  to  con- 
vert the  Irish,  and  St.  Germanus  to  reclaim  such  Britons  as  had 

•   KiUseb.  Vit.  ('onst.int.  L.  Hi.  c.  19.  *> 

t  Nennius'  Hist.  IJriton,  c.  xviii.  Girald.  Cambr.  De  Jur.  Mencv.  P.  ii. 
Ang-el.  Sac.  p.  541.  Silvcst.  (iiiald.  Camb.  Descript.  c.  xvili.  The  An- 
cient Reg-istcr  of  Landatt",  cpiodTeilo  vocatiir.  Angel.  Sacra,  vol.  ii.  Glldas 
Historicus,  quoted  by  liudborn.  Galfrid  Monument.  Vcn.  Bede,  L.  i.  c.  4. 
The  Saxon  Chronicle.  Gill.  Malm.  Antiq.  Glaston.  Martyr  Kom.  Kadenis, 
8cc.  8ic. 

X  St.  Athan.  Apolog.  2.     See  also  Ushei 

§  Can.  ill. 


•Address,  ix 

fallen  into  the  Pelagian  heresy.*  Each  of  these  facts  is  express- 
ly affirmed  by  a  contemporary  author  of  the  highest  character,  St. 
Prosper;  and  the  last  mentioned  fact  is  conformable  to  the  Bri- 
tish records,  whicli  represent  this  foreign  bishop,  as  exercising 
high  acts  of  jurisdiction  in  Britain,  which  he  never  could  have 
exercised  but  in  virtue  of  the  Papal  supremacy,  of  which  he  and 
his  companion,  St.  Lupus,  bishop  of  Treves,  were  the  delegates ; 
such  as  consecrating  bishops  in  different  parts  of  the  island,  and 
constituting  St.  Dubritius  archbishop  of  the  Bight  Side  of  it,  or  of 
Wales.t  But  how  many  other  proofs  of  the  dependency  of  the 
ancient  British  church  on  the  See  of  Rome,  has  not  our  episcopal 
antiquary  met  with,  in  his  own  favourite  author  and  predecessor, 
Giraldus  Cambrensis,|  especially  where  the  latter  gives  an  ac- 
count of  his  pleading  before  the  Pope  for  the  Archiepiscopal  dig- 
nity of  St.  David's,  which  the  latter  asserted  was  formerly  deco- 
rated even  with  the  Pcdlium,  tlie  mark  of  Papal  legatine  jurisdic- 
tion ;  till  one  of  his  predecessors,  Sampson,  as  he  asserted,  fly- 
ing into  Britany,  transferred  it  to  Dol  .^  He  maintained,  how- 
ever, that,  excepting  the  use  of  the  Pallium,  the  church  of  St. 
David  possessed  the  whole  metropolitical  dignity,  and  was  "  sub- 
ject to  no  other  church  except  that  of  Rome,  and  to  that  immedi- 
ately,^^^  The  modern  prelate  does  but  add  to  the  wonder  of  his 
learned  readers  by  appealing  to  the  conference  between  St.  Austin, 
Pope  Gregory's  missionary  and  legate  in  England,  and  the 
Welsh  bishops,  A.  D.  502,  and  to  the  latters  "rejecting the  over- 
tures" of  the  former,  in  proof  of  their  "rejecting  the  Pope's  au- 
thority," p.  24.  For,  what  were  these  overtures  ?  They  were 
these  three :  that  they,  the  Welsh  bishops,  would  keep  Easter  at 
the  right  time ;  that  they  would  adopt  the  Roman  ritual  in  the 

*  St.  Prosper.  **  Papa  Celestinus  Germanum  Antisidorensem  Episcopum, 
VICE  SUA  mittit,  et  deturbatis  haereticis  Britannos  ad  Catholicam  fidem  di- 
rigit."  Chi'on.  ad  An.  429.  See  also  Archbish.  Usher  De  Brit.  Eccl. 
Prim. 

t  "  Po  stquam  prsedicti  Seniores  (Germanus  et  Liipes)  Pelagianam  hsere- 
sim  extirpaverant ;  Episcopos,  in  pluribus  locis  Britannije  Insulse  consecrave- 
runt.  Super  omnes  autem  Britannos  dextralis  partis  Britannia  B.  Dubritiuiii, 
summum  Doctoi-em,  a  Reg-e  et  ab  omni  parochia  electum,  Archiepiscopum 
consecraverimt."  Ex  Antiq.  Eccl.  Landa.v.  Rcgistro.  Angl.  Sacr.  P.  ii.  p. 
667. 

t  The  New  Biographical  Dictionary  divides  Silvester  Giraldus  Cambrensis 
into  two  different  persons,  whereas,  it  is  plain,  from  this  author's  Descrip= 
tion  of  Wales,  p.  882,  Edit.  Cambden,  that  these  three  names  belong"  to  one 
and  the  same  author.  r  ..r-  4 

^  §  *'  Usque  ad  Anglorum  Reg-em  Henricum  I.  totam  MetropoHticam  dig- 
lutatim,  prseter  usum  Pallii,  Ecclesia  Menevensis  obtinuit ;  nuUi  Ecclesije 
prorsus,  nisi  Romans^  tantum,  et  illi  wiiiiediaie,  sicut  nee  Ecclesia  Scotica, 
subjectionem  debens."  De  Jur.  Menev.  Ecc.  Angl.  Sac.  P.  ii.  p.  541. — 
The  rival  See  of  Landaff' bears  equal  testimony  to  the  supremacy  of  Rome. 
**  Sicut  Romana  Ecclesia  excedit  dig'nitatem  omnium  Ecclesiarum  Catholics 
fidei,  ita  Ecclesia  ilia  Eandavia  excedit  omnes  Ecclesias  totius  dextralis 
Britannia. "    Ex  Antiq,  Reg-ist.  Landav.  Angl.    Sac,  P,  U.  p.  669, 


X  Address, 

administration  of  baptism ;  and  that  they  would  join  with  the 
Roman  missionaries  in  preaching  the  word  of  God  to  the  Pagan 
English.*  This  last  overture  demonstrates,  that  neither  on  the 
two  former  points,  nor  on  any  other  point,  and  least  of  all  on  that 
of  the  Pope-s  supremacy,  was  there,  in  the  opinion  of  St.  Austin, 
any  difterence,  of  essential  consequence,  between  his  doctrine 
and  that  of  the  Welsii  bishops.  For,  if  there  had  been  such  a  dif- 
ference, and  especially  if  they  had  denied  the  supremacy  of  hia 
master,  the  Pope,  would  he  have  invited,  and  even  pressed  them,  to 
join  with  him  in  preacliing  the  gospel  to  his  new  and  increasing 
flock  in  England  ?  As  well  may  we  believe  that  a  faithful  shep- 
herd would  collect  togetlier,  and  turn  into  his  fold  a  number  of 
hungry  wolves !  It  is  true  they  then  said  they  would  not  receive 
8t.  Augustin  for  their  archbishop  ;t  but  neither  did  he  nor  the 
Pope  require  them  to  do  so ;  nor  is  the  vindication  of  the  rights 
of  an  ancient  church,  at  any  time,  a  denial  of  the  Pope's  general 
supremacy.  So  far  from  this,  within  two  years  from  the  holding 
of  that  conference,  we  find  Oudoceus,  bishop  of  Landaff,  going  to 
Canterbury  to  receive  consecration  from  the  same  St.  Austin, 
and  we  find  him  received,  on  his  return  into  Wales,  by  the  king, 
princes,  clergy  and  people,  with  the  highest  honour.^:  We  have, 
moreover,  the  testimony  of  the  above  quoted  British  register, 
that  the  bishops  of  LandafF,  from  this  period,  were  always  sub- 
ject and  obedient  to  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  who  was  at 
all  times  the  Pope's  legate.  The  right  Rev.  bishop's  argument 
to  prove  that  the  Irish  church  was  not,  anciently,  in  communion 
with  the  church  of  Rome,  namely,  because  it  was  in  communion 
with  the  British  bishops,  p.  24,  is  as  great  a  paradox  as  any  of  the 
above-mentioned  :  since  it  has  been  proved  that  the  British  bi- 
shops tiiemselves  were  always  in  communion  with  the  church  of 
Rome.  Of  the  same  description  are  the  assertions,  that  no  le- 
gate was  appointed  by  the  Pope  in  Ireland  "before  Gillebert,  in 
the  twelfth  century,"  and  that  "  the  Pope's  jurisdiction  was  first 
introduced  into  Ireland  by  the  mercenary  compact  of  the  Pope 
■and  Henry  II."  p.  25.  To  expose  the  inconsistency  of  these  as- 
sertions, nothing  more  is  necessary  than  to  consult  the  Antiqid- 
Hes  of  Usher  himself,  on  Mhose  authority  they  arc  said  to  be 
grounded.  This  Protestant  archbishop  then  testifies  from  an- 
cient records,  which  he  cites,  that,  first  St.  Palladius,  and  after 
him  St.  Patrick,  was  sent  into  Ireland  by  Pope  Celestine,  to  con- 
vert its  inhabitans  from  Pagan  idolatry;  the  former  in  431,  the 
latter  in  432 ;  that  St.  Patrick,  "  having  estaft^lished  the  church  of 
Ireland,  and  ordained  bishops  and  priests  throughout  the  whole 
island,  went  to  Rome,  in  462,  where   he  procured   from   Pope 

•  (*  Ut  gcnti  Anglorum  una  nobiscum  prxdicetis  verbum  Domini."    Bed* 
Eccl.  Hist.  L.  ii.  c.  2. 
t  JJed.  Eccl.  Hist.  L.  ii.  c.  2. 
i  Vita  Oudooei,  quoted  by  Godwin  De  Prsesul,  and  Usher. 


Address.  xi 

Hilary,  the  confirmation  of  whatever  he  had  done  in  Ireland,  to- 
gether with  the  Pallium,  and  the  title  oi  Papers  legate  ;^^*  that  in 
540  the  celebrated  St.  Finan,  of  Clonard,  having  spent  seven 
years  at  Rome,  and  being  consecrated  bishop,  returned  into  Ire- 
land, where  he  instituted  schools  and  convents,  one  of  which  con- 
tained three  thousand  monks.t  It  appears  from  the  same  annalist, 
that  in  580,  the  renowned  St.  Columban  passed  from  Ireland  to 
the  continent,  where  he  was  protected  by  diiferent  bishops  and 
princes,  for  his  orthodoxy  and  piety,  and  even  by  the  Popes 
themselves,  with  whom  he  corresponded  ;  that  in  630,  a  deputa- 
tion was  sent  from  Ireland,  of  learned  and  holy  men,  "  to  the 
fountain  of  their  baptism,  like  children  to  their  mother,":|:  namely, 
to  the  apostolic  See  of  Rome,  to  consult  with  it  on  matters  of  re- 
ligion ;  that  among  these  was  St.  Lasrean,  who  was  consecrated 
bishop  by  Pope  Honorius,  and  appointed  his  legate  in  Ireland;^ 
that  in  640,  Tomianus,  and  four  other  bishops,  being  still  anxious 
about  the  right  observance  of  Easter,  and  about  tlie  Pelagian  he- 
resy, wrote  to  consult  Pope  Severinus,  and  that  they  received  an 
answer  to  their  letter  from  his  successor,  Pope  John. — Numerous 
other  testimonies,  not  only  of  the  cormnunion  of  the  church  of 
Ireland,  with  that  of  Rome,  but  also  of  its  acknowledging  the 
Papers  supremacy,  may  be  collected  from  Usher,  Ware,  and  other 
Protestants,  no  less  than  from  the  original  Catholic  writers,  down 
to  the  very  time  of  Gillebert,  bishop  of  Limerick,  whom  the  Cate- 
chist  admits  to  have  been  the  Pope's  legate  in  Ireland.  This 
happened,  according  to  Usher,  in  1130,  twenty-five  years  before 
the  date  of  what  the  Catechist  calls  "tiie  mercenary  compact  of 
the  Pope  and  Henry  II.  by  which,"  he  says,  "the  Pope's  juris- 
diction was  first  introduced  into  Ireland,"  and  forty  years  be- 
fore the  latter  invaded  Ireland  ;  which  island,  after  all,  as  every 
child  knows,  he  invaded,  not  as  the  executor  of  Pope  Adrian's 
legacy,  but  as  the  ally  of  the  dethroned  king,  Dermot. 

In  speaking  of  the  be<2;inning  and  progress  of  the  religion  of 
our  own  ancestors,  the  English,  it  migiit  be  expected  the  Right 
Rev.  Catechist  would  have  paid  more  attention  to  truth  and  con- 
sistency than  he  has  done  with  respect  to  the  foregoing  more  ob- 
scure histories.  This,  however,  is  not  tiiecase.  But,  previously 
to  the  writer's  entering  on  this  particular  subject  he  wishes  to 
observe,  what  is  more  fully  demonstrated  in  the  following  work, 
that  the  Catechist  totally  misrepresents  our  apostle,  Pope  Gre- 
gory the  Great,  as  having  "reprobated  the  spiritual  supremacy," 

•  Usher's  Antlq.  Index  Chronol.  .    f  Usher  Primord. 

t  Usher. 

§  Gilbert  was  succeeded  In  the  lej^atnie  office  by  St.  Malachy,  who,  by  a 
special  authority,  erected  the  See  of  Tuam  into  an  archbishopric.  After  his 
death  Cardinal  Papario  was  sent  by  Pope  Euc^enius  Ilf.  into  Ireland,  namely, 
in  1151,  with  foiu"  Palliums  for  the  four  archbislioprics.  So  false  is  the  pre- 
late's account  of  the  orig'in  of  the  Pope's  jurisdiction  in  b-eland  ! 


xu  Address* 

and  also  "  his  successor  Boniface  as  being  the  first  Pope  to  as- 
sume it,"  p.  16.  In  short,  the  question,  at  issue,  is  not  concern- 
ing the  titky  but  the  ponder  of  a  head  bishop  ;  which  power,  as  it 
will  appear  below,  no  Pope  exercised  more  frequently  or  exten- 
sively "  than  the  learned  and  virtuous  St.  Gregory,"  to  use 
the  prelate's  own  epithets.  His  lordship  does  not  deny  that 
our  ancestors,  the  Anglo-Saxons,  were  converted  to  Christi- 
anity by  "  the  Pope's  missionaries,"  p.  28,  namely,  by  St. 
Austin  and  his  companions,  sent  hither  by  the  above-men- 
tioned Pope  Gregory,  in  597 ;  nor  does  he  contradict  the  ac- 
count of  our  venerable  historian,  Bede,  who  describes  the  whole 
jurisdiction  and  discipline  of  our  church,  as  being  regulated  by 
that  Pope  and  his  successors.  Still  the  prelate  most  paradoxi- 
^cally  denies  that  "the  Pope  ever  exercised  jurisdiction  in  Eng- 
land or  Ireland,  except  during  the  four  centurie*  before  the  Re- 
formation !"  p.  11;  and  he  maintains,  in  particular,  that  "  the 
Anglo-Saxon  churches  differed  from  the  church  of  Rome  in  their 
objection  to  image  worshipping,  the  invocation  of  Saints,  transub- 
stantiation,  and  other  errors,"  p.  28.  Here  are  two  paradoxes  to 
be  refuted;  one  concerning  the  spii^itiial poicer,  the  other  con- 
cerning the  doctrine  of  the  See  of  Rome.  With  respect  to  the 
former :  is  it  not  a  fact,  my  lord,  known  to  every  ecclesiastical 
antiquary,  that  each  one  of  our  primates,  from  St.  Austin  down 
to  Stigand,  exclusively,  who  was  deposed  soon  after  the  conquest, 
either  went  to  Rome  to  fetch,  or  had  transmitted  to  him  from 
Rome,  the  emblem  and  jurisdiction  of  legatine  authority,  by  which 
beheld  and  exercised  the  power  of  a  metropolitan  over  his  suiBfre- 
gan  bishops  ?  An  original  author,  Radulph  Diceto,  exiribits  a  suc- 
cinct but  clear  demonstration  of  this,  in  a  series  of  all  the  arch- 
bishops, and  a  list  of  the  different  Popes,  from  whom  the  former 
respectively  received  the  Pallium.  Did  not  St.  Wilfrid,  arch- 
bishop of  York,  appeal  to  the  Pope  from  the  uncanonical  seques- 
tration of  his  (li()ce?5S  by  the  primate  Theodore  :  Did  not  Offa, 
the  powerful  Mercian  king,  engage  Pope  Adrian  to  transfer  six 
suflfregan  bishoprics  i'vmw  tlie  See  of  Canterbury  to  that  of  Litch- 
field, constituting  it,  at  the  same  time,  an  archbishopric  ?  A  hun- 
dred other  instances  of  the  exercise  of  the  Pope's  ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction  in  England,  previously  to  the  conquest,  could  be 
produced,  if  they  were  wanted. — As  to  the  pretended  difference 
between  the  doctrine  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  and  the  church  ot 
Rome,  the  Catechist  was  bound  to  inform  his  readers  when  it 
took  place  ;  and  who  were  the  authors  of*it ;  that  is,  who  first 
persuaded  the  whole  English  nation  to  reject  the  religion  they 
had  been  taught  by  their  apostles.  Pope  Gregory  and  his  mission- 
aries ;  and  whether  this  change  was  ett'ected  by  slow  degrees,  or  all 
of  a  sudden.'     If  so  absurd  a  paradox,  as  the  above-mentioned. 

*  To  make  some  brief  confutation  of  each  of  the  Catechist's  alleged  dif- 
ferences between  the  Anglo-Saxon  church  and  that  of  Rome  :  Bede  testifies, 


AddrcsH.  xin 

required  a  serious  refutation,  it  niip;lit  be  stated  that,  in  610,  bi- 
gHop  Melitus,  who  afterwards  bpcame  primate,  went  to  Rome  to' 
obtain  the  Pope's  confirmation  (►f  cLMtain  regulations  which  ha<l 
been  made  in  England,  tliat  lie  subscribed  to  the  Acts  of  an 
Episcopal  Synod,  then  held  in  tliat  city,  which  Acts  he  brought 
back  with  him  to  England,*  an<l  that,  in  680,  St.  Wilfrid,  going 
to  Rome,  to  prosecute  his  appeal,  was  present  at  a  council  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five  Bishops,  where,  "In  the  name  of  all  the 
churches  in  the  north  part  of  Britain,  Ireland,  and  the  nations  of 
the  Scots  and  Picts,  he  made  open  profession  of  the  true  Catholic 
faith,  confirming  it  also  by  his  subscription."! 

Other  paradoxes  of  the  Right  Rev.  prelate,  relating  to  matters 
of  a  later  date,  are  these,  that  Pope  Adrian  IV.  grounded  hig 
right  to  give  away  Ireland  on  "  the  forged  donation  of  Constan- 
tine,"  though  he  never  once  alluded  to  it,  but  assigned  quite 
other  grounds  for  what  he  did ;  and  that  "the  Pope  now  owes  the 
whole  of  his  temporal  and  spiritual  power  on  the  continent,  to 
this  gross  fiction,  and  the  Decretal  Epistles,"  p.  v.  Alas  !  what 
must  the  learned  Catholics  of  the  continent,  who  were  the  first  to 
detect  these  literary  frauds  of  the  eighth  century,  and  to  trace 
them  to  the  place  of  their  birth  in  Lower  Germany,  think  of  the 
literature  of  this  country,  when  they  hear  a  bishop,  and  a  member 
of  our  learned  societies,  telling  them  that  they  would  not  ac- 
knowledge the  Pope  to  be  prince  of  Rome  or  head  of  the  church, 
Were  it  not  for  those  spurious  pieces !  A  similar  paradox  is,  that 
"  The  Popish  bishops  and  Popish  clergy  were  the  real  authors  of 
the  fictitious  statutes  (Acts  of  Parliament)  of  Richard  II.  Henry  IV, 
and  Henry  V."  against  the  Lollards  ;  though  they  neither  did, 
iior  were  permitted  to  interfere  in  those  Acts ;  and  though  it  is 
notorious  from  all  contemporary  history,  that  these  severe  edicts 
were  occasioned  by  what  tliat  anarchial  faction  had  'done,  and 
threatened  to  do.  They  had,  under  the  command  of  Wat  Tyler, 
and  Jolm  Ball,  a  Wicklifiite  priest,  actually  put  to  death,  by  pub- 
lic execution,  the  lord  chancellor,  the  lord  treasurer,  and  the  lord 
chief  justice  of  England  ;  and  they  \\^,di  threatened  io  kill  the  kifig, 

that,  when  St.  Austin  and  his  fellow  missionaries  preached  the  g-ospel  to 
jTing-  Ethelbert,  they  carried  a  cross  for  their  ensig-n,  with  a  painted  picture 
of  Christ,  L.  i.  c.  25.  Will.  Mulmsb.  mentions  that,  among  other  pious 
imag-es,  preserved  at  Glastonbury,  were  those  of  Christ  and  his  apostles, 
made  of  silver  and  i^iven  by  king  Ina.  De  Antiq.  Glaston.  We  learn  from 
archbishop  Cuthred's  letter  to  Lullus,  successor  of  St.  Boniface,  bishop  and 
martyr  of  Mentz,  that  a  S}nod  of  Anglo-Saxon  bishops  had  chosen  this  saint, 
and  St.  Gregory,  and  St.  Austin,  to  be  their  *'  patrons  and  intercessoi*s.'* 
Inter  Epist,  Ronif.  That  our  ancestors,  believed  in  transubstantiation,  is 
clear,  from  Osborn's  relation  of  archbishop  Odo's  rendering  this  visible. 
Angl.  Sac.  P.  ii.  82.  One  of  his  successors,  Lanfrank,  was  the  principal 
defender  of  this  doctrine  against  lierengarius.  It  may  be  added,  that  the 
original  faith  concerning  purgatory,  the  mass,  a.nd  perhaps  every  other 
controverted  point,  can  be  proved  from  Bede's  History  alono. 
•  Bede,  L.  u.c«4.  f  Ibid.  L.  v.  c.  20. 

D 


»f-.  Address, 

the  lords  spiritual  and  temporal,  and  all  the  pen  and  ink-korn  m«n,a» 
thej  called  the  lawyers  ;  as  also  to  put  down  all  the  clergy,  except 
the  begging  friars,  and  to  divide  among  themselves  all  their  lands 
and  property.*  Such  were  the  levellers  of  the  fifteenth  centurVt 
whom  a  modern  bishop  eulogizes. — The  following  are  theological 
paradoxes,  being  such  as  will  infallibly  non-plus  every  regular 
student  in  divinity.  1st.  "  The  apostles  were  not  bishops^"  p. 
15.  By  the  same  rule  bishops  are  not  priests. — !2dly,"To  re- ^^ 
tain  the  obsolete  language  of  ancient  Rome,  in  prayer,  is  (cn  error^  , 
p.  39. — 3dly.  The  Irish  were  guilty  of  "  a  heresy  of  discipline  J^^ 
p.  60. 

But  the  political  paradoxes,  my  lord,  of  this  new  Catechism 
are  still  more  inexplicable  than  the  theological  ones.  The  first 
of  them,  which  I  shall  mention,  is  contained  in  the  following  ques- 
tion and  answer.  "  Q.  What  is  it  excludes  Pagans,  Jews,  and 
Mahometans  from  our  churches  and  from  parliament?  A.  Re-,  5 
ligion,"  p.  44. — Your  lordship  will  permit  the  writer  to  observe, . 
in  the  first  place,  that  it  is  impossible  either  for  the  simple  cate- 
chumens of  Wales,  or  even  for  the  learned  reviewers  of  England, 
to  gather  from  this  passage,  whether  the  Rt.  Rev.  prelate  mean» 
to  say,  that  it  is  the  religion  of  Pagans,  Jews,  and  Turks,  or  that 
of  Protestants,  which  excludes  the  former  from  Parliament,  for 
example  :  nevertheless,  the  passage,  taken  either  way,  is  perfectly 
paradoxical.  For  can  that  prelate,  or  any  one  else,  cite  a  pre- 
cept of  the  Vedam,  or  the  Talmud,  or  the  Koran,  which  prohibits 
its  respective  votaries  from  sitting  and  voting  in  the  British 
parliament  iftheycanget  entrance  into  it?  Or  can  he  show 
any  thing  in  Protestantism  (which  he  defines  to  be  "  TTie  abjura- 
tion of  Popery,  and  the  exclusion  of  Papists  from  all  power,  ec* 
clesiastical  or  civil")  that  prevents  a  man,  who  publicly  pro- 
claims Mahomet,  or  who  publicly  denies  Jesus  Clirist,  or  who 
publicly  worships  the  obscene  and  blood-stained  idol  Juggernaut, 
from  being  a  member  of  either  house  of  the  legislature  ?  No,  my 
lord,  there  is  no  one  article  in  any  one  of  these  religions,  if  they 
may  be  called  so,  which  excludes  them  from  our  parliament;  the 
only  condition  for  rendering  them  fit  and  worthy  to  enter  into  it, 
and  becoming  legislators,  being  their  calling  God  to  tvifness,  that 
"  there  is  no  transubstantiation  in  the  mass,"  and  that  "the  wor- 
ship of  the  Virgin  Mary  and  the  saints,  as  practised  in  the  church 
of  Rome,  (upon  both  which  points  the  worshippers  of  Juggernaut 
and  English  Protestants  are,  for  the  most  part,  ecjually  well  in- 
structed,) are  Idolatrous! A   second  political  paradox   in 

this  Catechism  is,  that  "  the  inviolable  covenants  of  the  two 
unions  show  the  injustice  and  unconstitutional  nature  of  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  claims,"  p.  viii.  This,  my  lord,  is  equally  incom- 
prehensible ;  since  the  act  of  union  with  Scotland  neither  men- 

•  Hist.  Mjyor  T.  Wakjn^ham,  Knighton  De  vent.     Ang-1.  Collier's  Eccl. 
Hirt. 


•Address,  xf 

tions  these  claims,  nor  alludes  to  them  :  and  since  that  of  the 
union  with  Ireland  expressiy  admits  the  principle  of  their  being 
conceded,  and  prepares  t\ie  minds  of  men  for  their  actual  con- 
cession ;  as  it  is  therein  enacted,  that  "  Members  of  the  united 
parliament  shall  take  and  subscribe  the  usual  oaths  and  declara- 
tions UNTIL  THE  SAID  PARLIAMENT  SHALL  OTHER- 
WISE PROVIDE."     Art.  IV. Tlie  last  of  these  paradoxes, 

which  the  writer  will  extract  from  the  incomprehensible  Cate- 
chism, is  the  following.  It  teaches,  at  page  35,  that  "  Not  to  con- 
sent to  the  veto,  is  not  to  acknowledge  tlie  king^s  supremacyy 
which  it  is  treasonable,  by  statute,  to  oppose."  And  immediately 
after,  at  p.  36,  it  teaches  that  "  the  veto,  or  the  king's  nomination  j 
is  unprotestant  and  illegal:^'*  to  which  the  bishop  adds,  in  the 
words  of  his  friend  Mr.  Sharp  ;  "it  is  highly  improper  and  even 
illegal  for  the  crown  of  England  to  accept  the  power  of  the  pro- 
posed veto;  or  to  have  any  concern  in  the  appointment  of  imreform- 
edbishops,^"^  p.  56.  Can  any  one,  my  lord,  reconcile  these  oppo- 
site doctrines }  To  the  plain  sense  of  the  writer  it  appears,  that 
if  it  be  illegal  for  his  majesty  to  accept  of  the  veto,  it  would  be 
criminal  in  the  Catholics  to  offer  it  to  him ;  so  far  from  its  being 
treasonable  to  refuse  giving  it ! 


MY  LORD  BISHOP, 

The  wise  man  has  said,  in  the  Sacred  Text,  of  making  many 
hooks  there  is  no  end,  Eccles.  xii.  12.;  and  we  are  certain,  from 
reason  and  experience,  that,  least  of  all,  will  there  be  an  end  of 
making  books,  and  disputing  on  subjects  of  religion,  with  respect 
to  those  who  have  no  fixed  rule,  or  none  but  a  false  one,  for  de- 
ciding on  religious  controversies,  or  who  suffer  wordly  interest, 
pride,  or  the  prejudices  of  education,  to  take  place  of  the  sincerity, 
humility  and  piety,  which  ought  to  guide  them  in  a  matter  of 
such  infinite  moment.  The  writer  trusts  that,  in  i\\e  first  part  of 
the  following  Letters,  he  has  shown  the  rule  appointed  by  Christ, 
for  clearly  discerning  the  truths  he  has  revealed,  and  which  con- 
ducts to  the  same  end;  that  he  has,  in  his  second  part,  clearly 
pointed  out  Christ's  trite  church,  which  cannot  but  teach  his  true 
doctrine.  With  men  of  good  will,  who  follow  either  of  these 
ways  in  the  uprightness  and  fervour  of  their  souls,  a  satisfactory 
end  to  their  religious  discussions  and  doubts,  will  quickly  be 
found.  But  who  can  subdue  or  soften  the  above-mentioned  pas- 
sions and  prejudices  ?  No  one,  certainly,  but  God  alone  ;  and,  as 
the  greater  part  of  mankind  is  notoriously  under  their  influ- 
ence, the  writer  is  so  far  from  expecting  to  make  these  persons 
proselytes  to  his  demonstrations,  that  he  has  prepared  his  mind 
for  the  opposition  and  obloquy  which  he  is  sure  to  experience 
from  them.    He  is  aware,  that  most  statesmen,  and  other  great 


xti  Addrtu. 

personaffcs,  regard  religion  merely  as  a  political  engine  for  ma- 
naging  the  population,  and  therefore  wish  to  keep  one  as  well  as 
the  otner  as  quiet  as  possible.  On  this  principle,  had  they  been 
counsellors  to  king  Ethelbert,  they  would  have  persuaded  him  to 
banish  St.  Austin,  and  to  continue  the  worship  of  Thor  ^nd  Wo- 
den. The  multitude,  in  this  age  of  infidelity  and  dissipation^ 
nauseate  religious  inquiries  and  instructions  ;  and,  when  they 
must  hear  them,  like  the  Jews  of  old;  they  say  to  the  seer,  see 
not;  and  to  the  prophet,  prophesy  not  to  7is  right  things:  speqk 
unto  us  smooth  things  ;  prophesy  deceits^  Isai.  xxx.  10.  The  cri- 
tics and  reviewers  are,  for  the  most  part,  as  smooth  in  this  re- 
spect, as  the  prophets  :  if  they  lead  the  public  opinion  in  matters 
of  less  consequence,  they  follow  it  in  those  of  greater. — Beit  what- 
ever excuse  there  may  be  for  the  inconsistency  of  other  men,  in 
religious  matters,  there  would,  evidently,  be  none  for  persons  pf 
your  lordship's  and  the  writer's  profession  and  situation,  should 
they  for  their  temporal  advantage,  or  their  prejudices,  mislead 
others  in  a  matter  of  eternal  consequence.  Such  conduct  would 
be  hypocritical,  and  doubly  perfidious  and  ruinous.  It  would  be 
perfidious  to  the  individuals  so  misguided,  and  to  the  church  oi 
sect  which  they  profess  to  serve ;  since  notliing  can  injure  that 
80  much,  as  the  appearance  of  insincerity  and  human  passions 
in  its  ofl&cial  defenders.  Accordingly  it  will  be  seen,  in  the  fol- 
lowing work,  that  the  most  fruitful  source  of  conversions  to  the 
Catholic  church,  are  the  detected  calumnies  and  misrepresenta- 
tions of  her  bitterest  enemies.  Such  conduct  would  also  be  ut- 
^tQtly  ruinous ;  first,  to  its  immediate  victims  ;  and  secondly, to  the 
persons  of  your  lordship's  and  the  writer's  profession*and  charac- 
ter. In  fact,  my  lord,  if,  as  Christ  assures  us,  at  the  great  day 
of  universal  trial,  some  of  the  arraigned  will  rise  up  in  judgment 
against  others  and  condemn  them  for  their  peculiar  guilt,  Matt,y.\\. 
41.;  how  heavy  a  condemnation  will  poor  bewildered  souls  call 
down  upon  those  faithless  guides  who  have  led  them  astray!  Or 
rather,  how  severe  a  vengeance  will  the  Good  Shepherd  himself 
(then  also  the  Judge  of  the  living  and  the  dead)  who  hath  laid 
down  his  life  for  his  sheep,  take  of  those  hirelings,  who  have  not 
only  left  his  sheep  to  be  caught  and  scattered  by  the  wolf,  but  have 
themselves  killed  and  destroyed  them  i  John  x. 

For  all  these  important  niotives,  lot  us,  my  lord,  dismiss  every 
selfish  interest,  human  respect,  and  prejudice  from  our  minds,  iji 
the  discussion  of  reiiji;i()us  subjects,  and  follow  truth,  whitherso- 
ever she  leads  us,  with  tl»e  utmost  sincerity  and  ardour  of  our 
souls.  The  writer  of  this,  for  his  part,  disgusted,  as  he  is,  at  see- 
ino-  the  most  serious  and  sacred  of  all  subjects  become  a  mere 
field  of  exercise  for  the  talents,  the  learning,  and  the  passions  of 
different  writers,  and  averse,  as  he  is,  from  taking  a  part  in  such 
contests,  nevertheless  holds  himself  bound,  not  only  to  render  an 
account  of  the  hope  that  is  in  him,  to  every  one  who  asketh  it  of 


Address.  xvii 

Hm,  in  the  sincerity  of  an  upright  heart,  but  also  to  yield  the 
palm  to  your  lordship  thankfully  and  publicly,  should  you  be  able 
to  prove  (not,  however,  by  extravagant  and  unsupported  asser- 
tions, but  by  sound  and  convincing  theological  arguments)  that 
the  rule  of  faith,  which  he  maintains,  is  not  the  one  appointed  by 
Christ  and  his  apostles,  for  guiding  Christians  into  all  truth;  or 
that  the  church  to  which  he  adheres,  has  not  exclusively  those 
marks  of  the  true  church,  which  your  lordship  ascribes  to  it,  in 
the  creeds  you  repeat,  equally  witli  the  writer.  Until  one  or 
other  of  these  points  is  proved,  he  will  hold  himself  bound  to  stick 
close  both  to  the  rule  and  the  church,  in  spite  of  calumny,  mis- 
representation, ridicule,  clamour,  persecution,  and  to  maintain,  in 
opposition  to  your  lordship,  that  there  is  no  just  cause  for  either 
making  or  continuing  any  penal  laws  against  the  piofessors  of  the 
original  faith. 

The  writer  has  the  honour  to  remain,  my  lord»   , 

Your  lordship's  obedient  servant, 

J.  M.  D.  a 

W ,MayS,  1818. 


JfT 


THE  END 

OF 

RELIGIOUS  CONTROVERSY. 

LETTER  I. 

From  JAMES  BROWN,  Esq.  to  the  Fev.  J  M. 
D    D.  F,  S.  J. 


INTRODUCTION. 

New  Cottage^  near  Cressage,  Salop,  Oct,  13,  1801. 
Reverend  Sir, 

I  SHOULD  need  an  ample  apology  for  the  liberty  I  take, 
in  thus  addressing  you  without  having  the  honour  of  your  ac- 
quaintance, and  still  more  for  the  heavy  task  I  am  endeavouring 
to  impose  upon  you,  if  I  did  not  consider  your  public  character, 
as  a  pastor  of  your  religion,  and  as  a  writer  in  defence  of  it, 
and  likewise  your  personal  character  for  benevolence,  which 
has  been  described  to  me  by  a  gentleman  of  your  communion, 
Mr.  J.  C — ^ne,  who  is  well  acquainted  with  us  both.  Having 
mentioned  this,  I  need  only  add,  that  I  write  to  you  in  the 
name  of  a  society  of  serious  and  worthy  Christians,  of  different 
persuasions,  to  which  I  myself  belong,  who  are  as  desirous  as 
I  am,  to  receive  satisfaction  from  you,  on  certam  doubts, 
which  your  late  work,  in  answer  to  Dr.  Sturges,  has  suggested 
to  us.=*=  ^  > 

However,  m  making  this  request  of  our  society  to  you,  it 
seems  proper.  Reverend  sir,  that  I  should  bring  you  acquaint- 
ed with  the  nature  of  it,  by  way  of  convincing  you,  that  it  is 
not  unworthy  of  the  attention,  which  I  am  desirous  you  should 
pay  to  it.  We  consist  then  of  above  twenty  persons,  including 
;he  ladies,  who,  living  at  some  distance  from  any  considerable 
cown,  meet  together  once  a  week,  generally  at  my   habita- 

•  Letters  to  a  Prebendary y  in  answer  to  Reflediom  m  Popery y  by  the  Rer. 
Dr.  Sturges,  Prebendary  and  Chancellcyr  of  Winchester. 

A 


2  Letter  L 

tion  of  New  Cottagej  not  so  much  for  our  amusement  and  re- 
fection^ as  for  the  improvement  of  our  minds,  by  reading  the 
best  publications  of  the  day,  which  I  can  procure  from  my 
JLondcn  bookseller,  and  sometimes  an  original  essay  written  by 
one  of  the  company* 

I  hiu  <•  signified  that  many  of  us  are  of  different  religious  per- 
suasions :  this  will  be  seen  more  distinctly  from  the  following 
account  of  our  members.  Among  these  I  must  mention,  in 
the  first  place,  our  above  named  learned  and  worthy  rector,  Dr. 
Carey.  He  is,  of  course,  of  the  church  of  England  ;  but  like 
-:,  most  other  of  his  learned  and  dignified  brethren,  in  these  times, 
^  he  is  of  that  free,  and  as  it  is  called,  liberal  turn  of  mind,  as  to 
•explain  away  the  mj-steries  and  a  great  many  of  its  other  arti- 
cles, which,  in  my  younger  da)'s,  were  considered  essential  to 
it.  Mr.  and  Mrs »  Topham,  are  Methodists  of  the  Predesti- 
narian  and  Antinomian  class,. while  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Askew  arc 
mitigated  Arminian  Methodists,  of  Wesley's  connection.  Mr. 
and  Mrs,  Rankin  are  honest  Quakers.  Mr.  Barker  and  his 
children  term  themselves  Rational  Dissenters^  being  of  the 
old  Presbyterian  lineage,  which  is  now  almost  universally 
gone  into  Socinianism.  I,  for  my  part,  glory  in  being  a 
stanch  member  of  our  happy  establishment,  which  has  ktpt 
the  golden  mean  among  the  contending  sects,  and  which  I  am 
fully  persuaded,  approaches  nearer  to  the  purity  of  the  apostol- 
ic church,  than  any  other  which  has  existed  since  the  age  ot 
it.  Mrs.  Brown  professes  an  equal  attachment  to  the  church; 
yet,  being  of  an  inquisitive  and  ardent  mind,  she  cannot  re- 
frain from  frequenting  the  meetings,  and  even  supporting  the 
missions  of  those  self-created  apostles,  who  are  undermining 
this  church  on  every  side,  and  who  are  no  where  more  active 
than  in  our  sequestered  valle}-. 

With  these  differences  among  us,  dn  the  most  interesting  ot 
all  subjects,  we  cannot  help  having  frequent  religious  contro- 
versies :  but  reason  and  charity  enables  us  to  manage  these 
without  any  breach  of  either  good  manners  or  good  will  to  each 
other.  Indeed,  I  believe  that  we  are,  one  and  all,  possessed  of 
an  unfeigned  respect  and  cordial  love  for  christians  of  every 
description,  one  only  excepted.  Must  I  name  it  on  the  pre- 
sent occasion? — Yes,  I  must;  in  order  to  fulfil  my  commis- 
sion in  a  proper  manner.  It  is  then  the  church  that  )ou, 
Rev.  sir,  belong  to  ;  which,  if  any  credit  is  due  to  the  eminent 
divines,  whose  works  we  are  in  the  habit  of  x^eading,  and  more 
particularly  to  the  illustrious  bishop  Porteus,  in  his  celebrated 
and  standing  work,  called  A  BRIEF  CONFUTATION  OF 
THE  ERRORS  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROM¥.,  extract- 
ed from   archbishop  Seeker's    V.  SERMONS    AGAINST 


Introduction,  3 

POPERY,*  is  such  amass  of  absurdity,  bigotry, superstition, 
idolatry,  and  immorality,  that,  to  say  we  respect  and  love 
those  -who  obstinately  adhere  to  it,  as  we  do  other  Christians, 
would  seem  a  compromise  of  reason,  Scripture,  and  virtuous 
feeling. 

And  yet  even  of  this  church,  we  have  formed  a  less  revol- 
ting idea,  in  some  particulars,  than  we  did  formerly.  This 
has  happened,  from  our  having  just  read  over  your  controver- 
sial work  against  Dr.  Sturges,  called  LETTERS  TO  A 
PREBENDARY,  to  which  our  attention  was  directed  by  the^ 
notice  taken  of  it  in  the  house  of  parliament,  and  particularl)^ 
by  the  very  unexpected  compliment  paid  to  it,  by  that  orna- 
ment of  our  church,  bishop  Horsley.  We  admit  then  (at  least 
I,  for  my  part,  admit)  that  you  have  refuted,  the  most  odious 
of  the  charges  brought  against  your  religion,  namely,  that  it  is, 
necessarily,  and,  upon  prmcipal,  intolerant  and  sanguinary,  re- 
quiring its  members  to  persecute,  with  fire  and  sword,  all  per- 
sons of  a  different  creed  from  their  own,  when  this  is  in  their 
power.  You  have  also  proved  that  Papists  may  be  good  sub- 
jects to  a  Protestant  sovereign  ;  and  you  have  shown,  by  an  inter- 
esting historical  detail,  that  the  Roman  Catholics  of  this  kingdom 
have  been  conspicuous  for  their  loyalty,  from  the  time  of  Eliza- 
beth, down  to  the  present  time.  Still  most  of  the  absurd  and 
anti  scriptural  doctrines  and  practices,  alluded  to  above,  rela- 
ting to  the  T^orship  of  saints  and  images,  to  transubstantiation 
and  the  half  communion,  to  purgatory,  and  shutting  up  the  Bibk, 
with  others  of  the  same  nature,  you  have  not,  to  my  recollection, 
so  much  as  attempted  to  defend.  In  a  word,  I  write  to  you. 
Rev.  sir,  on  the  present  occasion,  in  the  name  of  our  respectable 
society,  to  ask  you  whether  you  fairly  give  up  these  doctrines  and 
practices  of  Poper^^,  as  untenable,  or  otherwise,  whether  you  will 
condescend  to  interchange  a  few  letters  with  me  on  the  subject 
of  them,  for  the  satisfactioiv  of  me  and  my  friends,  and  with  the 
sole  view  of  mutually  discovering  and  communicating  religious 
truths.  We  remark  that  you  say,  in  your  first  letter  to  Dr. 
Sturges  :  "  Should  I  have  occasion  to  make  another  reply  to  you, 
I  will  try  if  it  be  not  possible  to  put  the  v/hole  question  at  issue 
between  us,  into  such  a  shape  as  shall  remove  the  danger  of  irri- 
tation on  both  sides,  and  still  enable  us  if  we  are  mutually  so 
disposed,  to  agree  together  in  the  acknowledgment  of  the  same 
religious  truths." — If  you  still  think  that  this  is  possible,  for 
God's  sake  and  your  neighbours'  sake,  deby  not  to  undertake 

*  The  Norrisian  professor  of  divinity,  in  the  university  of  Cambridge  speak- 
ing of  this  work,  says,  *«  The  refutation  of  the  Popish  errors  is  now  reduced 
into  a  small  compass  by  archbishop  Seeker  and  bishop  Porteus." — Lectxtret 
inlHviniii/t  Fol.  IF.  p.  71.  , 


^  Essay   /. 

it.     The  plan  embraces  every  advantage  we  wish  for,  and  ex- 
cludes every  evil  we  deprecate.     You  shall  manage  the  discus- 
sion in  your  own  way,  and  we  will  give  you  as  little  interuption 
as  possible. — Two  of  the  essays  above  alluded  to,  with  which 
our  wordiy  rector  lately  furnished  us,  I,  with  your  permission, 
enclose,  to  convince  you,  that  genius  and  sacred  literature  are 
cultivated  round  the  \Vrekin,  and  on  the  banks  of  the  Severn. 
I  remain,  Rev.  Sir,  with  great  respect. 
Your  faithful  and  obedient  servant, 
JAMES  BROWN. 


ESSAr  I. 

ON  THE  EXISTENCE  OF  GOD,  AND  OF  NATURAL 
RELIGION 

BY  THE  REV.  SAMUEL  CAREY,  LL.  D. 

FORESEEING  that  my  health  will  not  permit  nie,  for  a 
considerable  time,  to  meet  my  respected  friends  afc  New  Cot- 
tage, I  comply  with  the  request,  which  several  of  them  have 
made  me,  in  sending  them  in  writing,  my  ideas  on  the  two 
Jioblest  subjects  which  can  occupy  the  mind  of  man  ;  the  ex- 
istence of  God,  and  the  truth  of  ChristMtiity,  In  doing  this, 
I  profess  not  to  make  new  discoveries,  but  barely  to  state  cer- 
tain argimients,  which  I  collected  in  my  youth,  from  the  learned 
Hugo  Grotius,  our  judicious  Clark,  and  other  advocates  of 
natural  and  revealed  religion.  I  offer  no  apology  for  adopting 
the  words  of  Scripture,  in  arguing  with  persons  who  are  sup- 
posed not  to  admit  its  authoiity,  when  these  express  my  mean- 
ing as  fully  as  any  others  can  do. 

The  first  argument  for  the  existence  of  God,  is  thus  express- 
ed by  the  royal  prophet;  Know  ye  that  the  Lord  he  is  God:  it 
is  he  that  hath  ?nade  us,  not  we  ourselves,  <Ps.  c.  3.  In  fact, 
when  I  ask  myself  that  question,  which  every  reflecting  man 
must  sometimes  ask  himself:  Hoxv  came  I  into  this  state  of  ex- 
istence?  Who  has  bestowed  upon  me  the  being  which  I  enjoy  ?  I 
am  forced  to  answer:  It  is  not  I  that  made  mysef;  and  each  of 
my  forefathers,  if  asked  the  same  question,  must  have  returned 
the  same  answer.     In  like  manner,  if  I  interrogate  the  several 


Essay  L  $ 

beings  with  which  I  am  surrounded,  the  earth,  the  air,  th« 
water,  the  stars,  the  moon,  the  sun,  each  of  them,  as  an  ancient 
father  says,  will  answer  me,  in  its  turn  :  It  was  not  I  that  made 
you  ;  /,  like  you^  am  a  creature  of  yesterday^  as  incapable  of^h- 
vig  existence  to  yoii^  as  I  am  of  giving'  it  to  myself.  In  short, 
however  often  each  of  us  repeats  the  question :  Hoiv  came  I 
hither  ?  Who  has  made  me  zvhat  I  am  ?  we  shall  never  find  a  ra- 
tional answer  to  them,  till  we  come  to  acknowledge  that  there  is 
an  eternal^  necessary  self-existent  Beings  the  author  of  all  contin- 
gent beings,  which  is  no  other  than  GOD.  It  is  this  necessity 
of  beings  this  self -existence^  which  constitutes  the  nature  of  God, 
and  from  which  all  his  other  perfections  flow.  Hence  when  he 
deigned  to  reveal  himself,  on  the  flaming  mountain  of  Horeb, 
to  the  holy  legislator  of  his  chosen  people,  being  asked  by  this 
prophet,  what  was  his  proper  name  ?  he  answered  :  I  AM 
THAT  I  AM.  Exod,  iii.  14.  This  is  as  much  as  to  say:  1 
alone  exist  of  myself :  all  others  are  created  beings^  which  exist 
hij  my  xvilL 

From  this  attribute  of  5e//'-eAri*fe;2c^,  all  the  other  perfections 
of  the  Deity,  eternity,  immensity,  omnipotence,  omniscience, 
holiness,  justice,  mercy,  and  bounty,  each  in  an  infinite  degree, 
necessarily  flow,  because  there  is  nothing  to  limit  his  existence 
and  attributes,  and  because  whatever  perfection  is  found  in  any 
created  being,  must,  like  its  existence,  have  been  derived  from 
this  universal  source. 

This  proof  of  the  existence  of  God,  though  demonstrative  and 
self-evident  to  reflecting  beings,  is,  nevertheless,  we  have  rea- 
son to  fear,  lost  on  a  great  proportion  of  our  fellow  creatures  ; 
because  they  hardly  reflect  at  all ;  or  at  least,  never  consider, 
who  made  them^  or  what  they  -were  made  for ;  but  that  other 
proof,  which  results  from  the  magnificence,  the  beauty,  and 
tlie  harmony  of  the  creation,  as  it  falls  under  the  senses,  so  it 
cannot  be  thought  to  escape  the  attention  of  the  most  stupid  or 
savage  of  rational  beings.  The  starry  heavens,  the  fulminating 
clouds,  the  boundless  ocean,  the  variegated  earth,  the  organized 
human  body,  all  these,  and  many  other  phenomena  of  nature, 
must  strike  the  mind  of  the  untutored  savage,  no  less  than  that  of 
the  studious  philosopher,  \/ith  a  convicti(,n  that  there  is  an  infi- 
nitely powerful,  wise  and  bountiful  Being,  who  is  the  author  of 
these  things  :  though,  doul)tless,  the  latter,  in  proportion  as  he 
sees  m.ore  clearly  and  extensively  than  the  former,  the  properties 
and  economy  of  diff'erent  parts  of  the  creation,  possesses  a 
stronger  physical  evidence,  as  it  is  called,  of  the  existence  of 
the  great  Creator.     In  fact,  if  the  Pagan  physician,  Galen,* 

•1 
•  De  Usu  Partium. 


6  Essay    L 

from  the  imperfect  knowledge  which  he  possessed  of  the  struc- 
ture of  the  human  body,  found  himself  compelled  to  acknow- 
ledge the  existence  of  an  infinitely  wise  and  benificent  Being,  to 
make  it  such  as  it  is,  what  would  he  not  have  said,  had  he  been 
acquainted  with  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  and  the  uses  and 
harmony  of  the  arteries,  veins,  and  lacteals !  If  the  philosophi- 
cal orator,  Tully,  discovered  and  enlarged  on  the  same  truth, 
from  the  little  knowledge  of  astronomy  which  he  possessed,* 
what  strains  of  eloquence  would  he  not  have  poured  forth  upon 
it,  had  he  been  acquainted  with  the  discoveries  of  Galileo  and 
Newton,  relative  to  the  magnitude  and  distances  of  the  stars 
the  motions  of  the  planets  and  comets !  Yes,  all  nature  proclaim: 
that  there  is  a  Being,  who  is  wise  inheart  and  mighty  in  strength  ( 
who  doth  great  things  and  pan  tending  out;  yea,  wonders  with* 
out  number: — who  stretcheth  out  the  north  over  the  empty  places^ 
and  hangeth  the  earth  upon  nothing, — The  pillars  of  heaven 
tremble  and  are  astonished  at  his  reproof, — Lo!  these  are  a  part 
of  his  ways;  but  how  little  a  portion  is  heard  of  him!  The  thun- 
der of  his  power  who  can  understand!  Job.  ix. — xxvi. 

The  proofs,  however,  of  God's  existence,  which  can  least  be 
evaded,  are  those  which  come  immediately  home  to  a  man's 
own  heart ;  convincing  him,  with  the  same  evidence  he  has  of 
his  own  existence,  that  there  is  an  all-seeing,  infinitely  just,  and 
infinitely  bountiful  Master  above,  who  is  witness  of  all  his  ac- 
tions and  words,  and  of  his  very  thoughts.  For  whence  arises 
the  heart-felt  pleasure  which  the  good  man  feels  ofi  resisting  a 
secret  temptation  to  sin,  or  in  performing  an  act  of  benificence, 
though  in  the  utmost  secrecy?  Why  does  he  raise  his  counte- 
nance to  heaven,  with  devotion,  and  why  is  he  then  prepared  to 
meet  death  with  cheerful  hope,  unless  it  be  that  his  conscience 
tells  him  of  amunificent  rewarder  of  virtue,  the  spectator  of  what 
he  does?  And  why  does  the  most  hardened  sinner,  tremble  and 
falter  in  his  limbs,  and  at  his  heart,  when  he  commits  his  most 
secret  sins  of  theft,  vengeance,  or  impurity?  Why,  especially, 
does  he  sink  into  agonies  of  horror  and  despair  at  the  approach 
of  death,  unless  it  be  that  he  is  deeply  convinced  of  the  constant 
presence  of  an  all-seeing  witness,  and  of  an  infinitely  holy,  pow- 
erful, andjust  Judge,  into  whose  hands  it  is  a  terrible  thing  to  fall! 
— In  vain  docs  he  say :  Darkticss  cncompasseth  me  and  the  walls 
cover  me:  no  one  secth:  of  whom  am  I  afraid^ — for  his  conscience 
tells  him  that,  The  eyes  of  the  Lord  are  far  brighter  than  the  sun^ 
beholding  round  about  all  the  ways  of  men.  Ecclcs.  xxiii.  26,28. 

This  last  argument,  in  particular,  is  so  obvious  and  convinc- 
ing, that  I  cannot  bring  m)'self  to  believe  there  ever  was  a  hu- 

•  De  Xatura  Deorum.  1.  u. 


JSssay    /.  7 

man  being,  of  sound  sense,  who  was  really  an  Atheist.  Those 
persons  who  have  tried  to  work  themselves  into  a  persuasion 
that  there  is  no  God,  will  generally  be  found,  both  in  ancient 
and  modem  times,  to  be  of  the  most  profligate  manners,  who, 
dreading  to  meet  him  as  their  Judge,  try  to  persuade  themselves 
that  he  does  not  exist.  This  has  been  observed  by  St.  Austin, 
who  says :  "  No  man  denies  the  existence  of  God,  but  such  a  one 
whose  interest  it  is  that  there  should  be  no  God."  Yet  even 
they  who  pretend  to  disbelieve  the  existence  of  a  Supreme  Be- 
ing, in  the  broad  day-light,  and  among  their  profligate  compa- 
nions, in  the  darkness  and  solitude  of  the  night,  and,  still  more, 
under  the  apprehension  of  death,  fail  not  to  confess  it ;  as  Se- 
neca, I  think,  has  somewhere  observed.* 

A  son  heareth  his  father^  and  a  servant  his  master^  says  the 
prophet  Malachi.  If  then  I  be  a  father^  where-is  mine  honour? 
and  if  I  be  a  master^  where  is  rrnj  fear  ?  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts ^ 
i.  6.  In  a  word :  it  is  impossible  to  believe  in  the  existence  of 
a  Supreme  Being,  our  Creator,  our  Lord,  and  our  Judge,  with- 
out being  conscious,  at  the  same  time,  of  our  obligation  to  wor- 
ship him  exteriorly  and  interiorly,  to  fear  him,  to  love  him,  and 
to  obey  him.  This  constitutes  natural  religion',  by  the  observ- 
ance of  which  the  ancient  patriarchs,  together  with  Melchise- 
dec.  Job,  and,  we  trust,  very  many  other  virtuous  and  religious 
persons  of  different  ages  and  countries,  have  been  acceptable  to  '■ 
God,  in  this  life,  and  have  attained  to  everlasting  bliss,  in  the 
other;  still  we  must  confess,  with  deep  sorrow,  that  the  num- 
ber of  such  persons  has  been  small,  compared  with  those  of  eve- 
ry age  and  nation,  who,  as  St.  Paul  says.  When  they  knew  God, 
glorifed  him  not  as  God;  neither  were  they  thankful^  but  became 
vain  in  their  imaginations ;  and  their  foolish  hearts  were  dark- 
ened;— who  changed  the  truth  of  God  into  a  lie,  and  worshipped 
and  served  the  creature  more  than  the  Creator,  who  is  blessed 
for  ever  more.     Rom.  i.  21,  25. 

SAMUEL  CAREY. 

*  It  is  proper  here  to  obsen'e,  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  boasting  Athe- 
ists who  signalized  their  impiety  during  the  late  French  revolution,  when  they 
came  to  die,  acknowledged  that  their  irrehgion  had  been  affected,  and  that 
they  never  doubted,  in  their  hearts,  of  the  existence  of  God  and  the  truths  of 
Christianity.  Among  these  were  Boulanger,  La  Metric,  Collot  d'Herbois, 
Egalite,  duke  of  Orleans,  &c. 


(O 

ESSAY  IL 
ON  THE  TRUTH  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION. 

BY  THE  REV.  SAMUEL  CAREY,  LL.  D. 

THOUGH  the  light  of  nature  is  abundantly  sufficient,  as  I 
trust  I  have  shown  in  my  former  essay,  to  prove  the  existence 
of  God,  and  the  duty  of  worshipping  and  serving  him,  yet  this 
was  not  the  only  light  that  was  communicated  to  mankind  in  the 
first  ages  of  the  world  concerning  these  matters,  since  man\- 
things  relating  to  them  were  revealed  by  God  to  the  patriarchs, 
and,  through  them,  to  their  contemporaries  and  descendants. 
At  length  this   knowledge  was  almost  universally  obliterated 
from  the  minds  of  men,  and  the  light  of  reason  itself  was  so 
clouded  by  the  boundless  indulgence  of  their  passions,  that  they 
seemed,  eveiy  where,  sunk  almost  to  a  level  with  the   brute 
creation.     Even  the  most  polished  nations,  the  Greeks  and  tlic 
Romans,  blushed  not  at  unnatural  lusts,  and  boasted  of  the  most 
horrid  cruelties.     Plutarch  describes  the  celebrated  Grecian 
sages,  Socrates,  Plato,  Xenophon,  Cebes,  &c.  as  indulging  free- 
ly in  the  former^^  and  every  one  knows  that  the  chief  amuse- 
ment of  the  Roman  people,  was  to  behold  their  fellow  creatures 
murdering  one  another  in   the  amphitheatres,  sometimes   bv 
hundreds  and  thousands  at  a  time.     But  the  depravity  and  im- 
piety of  the  ancient  Pagans,  and  I  may  say  the  same  of  those  of 
modern  times,  appears  chiefly  in  their  religious  doctrines  and 
worship.  What  an  absurd  and  disgusting  rabble  of  pretended  dei- 
ties,marked  with  every  crime  that  disgraces  the  worst  of  mortals, 
lust,  envy,  hatred  and  cruelty,  did  not  the  above  named  refined 
nations  worship,  and  that,  in  several  instances,  by  the  imitation 
of  their  crimes  !     Plato  allows  of  drunkenness  in  honour  of  the 
gods  :  Aristotle  admits  of  indecent  representations   of  them. 
How  many  temples  were  every  where  erected,  and  prostitutes 
consecrated  to  the  worship  of  Venus  ?f     And  how  generally, 
were  human  sacrifices  offered  up  in  honour  of  Moloch,  Saturn, 
Thor,  Diana,  Woden,  and  other  pretended  §^ds,  or  rather  real 
demons,  by  almost  every  Pagan  nation,  Greek  and  barbarian, 

•  De  Isid  et  Osirid.  Even  the  refined  Cicero  and  Virgil  did  not  blush  a-t 
these  infamies. 

-}•  Strabo  tells  us,  that  there  were  a  thousand  prostitutes  attached  to  the 
temple  of  Venus,  at  Corinth.  The  Athenians  attributed  the  preservation  oi" 
their  city  to  the  prayers  of  its  prostitutes. 


Essay  IL  9 

and  among  the  rest  by  the  ancient  Britons,  inhabitants  of  this 
island !  It  is  true,  some  few  sages  of  antiquity,  by  listening  to 
the  dictates  of  nature  and  reason,  saw  into  the  absurdity  of  the 
popular  religion,  and  dis  covered  the  existence  and  attributes  of 
the  true  God;  but  then  how  unsteady  and  imperfect  was  their 
belief,  even  in  this  point !  and  when  they  knew  God^  they  did 
not  glorify  him  as  God^  nor  give  him  thanks^  but  became  vain  in 
their  thoughts,  Rom.  i.  21.  In  short,  they  were  so  bewilder- 
ed on  the  whole  subject  of  religion,  that  Socrates,  the  wisest  of 
them  all,  declared  it "  impossible  for  men  to  discover  this,  un- 
less the  Deity  himself  deigned  to  reveal  it  to  them."f  Indeed 
it  was  an  effort  of  mercy,  worthy  the  great  and  good  God,  to 
make  such  a  revelation  of  himself,  and  oi  his  acceptable  wor- 
ship, to  poor,  benighted,  and  degraded  man.  This  he  did,  first, 
in  favour  of  a  poor,  afflicted  captive  tribe  on  the  banks  of  the 
Nile,  the  Israelites,  whom  he  led  from  thence  into  the  country 
of  their  ancestors,  and  raised  up  to  be  a  powerful  nation,  by  a 
series  of  astonishing  miracles,  instructing  and  confirming  them 
in  the  knowledge  and  worship  of  himself  by  his  different  pro- 
phets. He  afterwards  did  the  same  thing  in  favour  of  all  the 
people  of  the  earth,  and  to  a  far  greater  extent,  by  the  promised 
Messiah,  and  his  apostles.  It  is  to  this  latter  divine  legation 
I  shall  here  confine  my  arguments  ;  though  indeed,  the  one  con- 
firms the  other  ;  since  Christ  and  the  apostles  continually  bear 
testimony  to  the  mission  of  Moses, 

All  history,  then,  and  tradition  prove  that  in  the  reign  of 
Tiberius,  the  second  Roman  emperor  after  Julius  Csesar,  an 
extraordinary  personage,  Jesus  Christ,  appeared  in  Palestine, 
teaching  a  new  system  of  religion  and  morality,  far  more  sub- 
lime and  perfect  than  any  which  the  Pagan  philosophers,  or  even 
than  the  Hebrew  prophets,  had  inculcated.  He  confirmed  the 
truths  of  natural  religion  and  of  the  Mosaic  revelation ;  but 
then  he  vastly  extended  their  sphere,  by  the  communication  of 
many  heavenly  mysteries,  concerning  the  nature  of  the  one  true 
God,  his  economy  in  redeeming  man  by  his  own  vicarious  suf- 
ferings, the  restoration  and  future  immortality  of  our  bodies, 
and  the  final  decisive  trial  we  are  to  undergo  before  him,  our 
destined  Judge.  He  enforced  the  obligation  of  loving  our 
heavenly  Father,  above  all  things,  of  praying  to  him  continually, 
and  of  referring  all  our  thoughts,  words,  and  actions  to  his  di- 
vine honour.  He  insisted  on  the  necessity  of  denying,  not  one 
or  other  of  our  passions,  as  the  philosophers  had  done,  who,  as 
TertuUian  says,  drove  out  one  nail  with  another  ;  but  the  whole 
collection  of  them,  disorderly  and  vitiated  as  they  are,  since  the 

t  Plato  Dialog*.  Alcibiad. 

B 


10  Essay  II, 

fall  of  our  first  parent.  In  opposition  to  oui  mnate  avarice, 
pride,  and  love  of  pleasure  ;  he  opened  his  mission  by  teaching 
that,  blessed  are  the  fioor  inspirit;  blessed  are  the  meek  ;  blessed 
are  they  that  mouni^  ^c.  With  respect  to  our  fellow  creatures  ; 
teaching,  as  he  did,  e^-ery  virtue,  he  singled  our  fraternal  charity 
for  his  peculiar  and  characteristic  precept ;  requiring  that  his 
disciples  should  love  one  another  as  they  love  themselves,  and 
even  as  he  himself  has  loved  them  ;  he  who  laid  down  his  life 
for  them  !  and  he  extended  the  obligation  of  this  precept  to  our 
enemies,  equally  with  our  friends. 

Nor  v/as  the  morality  of  Jesus  a  mere  speculative  system 
of  precepts,  like  the  systems  of  the  philosophers:  it  was  of  a 
practical  nature,  and  he  himself  confirmed,  by  his  example, 
every  virtue  which  he  inculcated,  and  more  particularly  the 
hardest  of  all  others  to  reduce  to  practice,  the  love  of  our  en- 
emies. Christ  \i?idg07ie  about ^  as  the  Sacred  Text  expresses  it, 
doing"  good  to  all^  Acts  x.  38.  and  evil  to  no  one.  He  had  cured 
the  sick  of  Judea  and  the  neighbouring  countries,  had  given  sight 
to  the  blind,  hearing  to  the  deaf,  and  even  life  to  the  dead  j  but 
above  all  things,  he  had  enlightened  the  minds  of  his  hearers 
with  the  knowledge  of  pure  and  sublime  truths,  capable  of  lead- 
ing them  to  present  and  future  happiness  :  yet  was  he  every 
v/here  calumniated  and  persecuted,  till  at  length,  his  inveterate 
enemies  fulfilled  their  malice  against  him  by  nailing  him  to  a 
cross,  thereon  to  expire,  by  lengthened  torments.  Not  content 
with  this,  they  came  before  his  gibbet,  deriding  him  in  his  ago- 
ny with  insulting  words  and  gestures.  What,  now,  is  the  return 
which  the  author  of  Christianity  makes  for  such  unexampled 
barbarity?  He  excuses  the  authors  of  it!  He  prays  for  them! 
Father  ^forgive  them:  for  they  know  not  xvhat  they  do!  Luke  xxiii, 
34.  No  wonder  this  proof  of  supernatural  charity  should  have 
staggered  the  most  hardened  infidels;  one  of  whom  confesses 
that,  "■  if  Socrates  has  died  like  a  philosopher,  Jesus  alone  has 
died  like  a  God  !"*  The  precepts  and  the  example  of  the  mas- 
ter have  not  been  lost  upon  his  disciples. — These  have  ever 
been  distinguished  by  their  practice  of  virtue,  and,  particularly, 
by  their  charity  and  forgiveness  of  injuries.  The  first  of  them 
who  laid  down  his  life  for  Christ,  St.  Stephen,  while  the  Jews 
were  stoning  him  to  death,  prayed  thus,  with  his  last  voice, 
Lord^  lay  not  this  sin  to  their  charge!  Acts  vii.  59. 

Having  considered  the  several  systems  oJ"  paganism,  which 
'lave  prevailed,  and  that  still  prevail,  in  different  parts  of  the 
^rorld,  both  as  to  belief  and  practice,  together  with  the  specula- 
ions  of  the  wisest  infidel  philosophers  concerning  them;  and  ha- 

*  Rousseau  Emile. 


£ssat/  IL  XI 

ving  contemplated,  on  the  other  hand,  the  doctrine  of  the  New 
Testament  on  both  of  them,  namely,  theory  and  practice  I 
would  ask  any  candid  believer,  where  he  thought  Jesus  Christ 
could  have  acquired  the  idea  of  so  sublime,  so  pure,  so  effica- 
cious a  religion  as  Christianity  is,  especially  when  compared 
with  the  others  above  alluded  to  ?  Could  he  have  acquired  it  in 
the  workshop  of  a  poor  artisan  of  Nazareth,  or  among  the  fish- 
ermen of  the  lake  of  Genezareth?  Then,  how  could  he  and  his 
poor  unlettered  apostles  succeed  in  propagating  this  religion,  as 
they  did  throughout  the  world,  in  opposition  to  all  the  talents 
and  power  of  philosophers  and  princes,  and  all  the  passions  of 
all  mankind?  No  other  answers  can  be  given  to  these  questions, 
than  that  the  religion  itself  has  been  divinely  revealed^  and  that 
it  has  been  divinely  assisted^  in  its  progress  throughout  the 
world. 

In  addition  to  this  internal  evidence  of  Christianity,  as  it  is 
called,  there  are  external  proofs^  which  must  not  be  passed 
over.  Christ,  on  various  occasions,  appealed  to  the  miracles 
which  he  wrought,  in  confirmation  of  his  doctrine  and  mission; 
miracles  public  and  indisputable,  which,  from  the  testimony  ot 
Pilate  himself,  were  placed  on  the  records  of  the  Roman  em- 
pire,* and  which  were  not  denied  by  the  most  determined  ene- 
mies of  Christianity,  such  as  Celsus,  Porphyrius,  and  Julian, 
the  apostate.  Among  these  miracles,  there  is  one  of  so  ex- 
traordinary a  nature,  as  to  render  it  quite  unnecessary  to  men- 
tion any  others,  and  which,  therefore,  is  always  appealed  to  by 
the  apostles,  as  the  grand  proof  of  the  gospel  they  preached; 
I  mean  the  resurrection  of  Christ  from  the  dead;  to  which  must 
be  added  its  circumstances,  namely,  that  he  raised  himself  to 
life  by  his  own  power ^  without  the  intervention  of  any  living 
person ;  and  that  he  did  this  in  conformity  with  his  prediction^ 
at  the  time^  which  he  had  appointed  for  this  event,  and  in  deji» 
ance  of  the  efforts  of  his  enemies^  to  detain  his  body  in  the  se- 
pulchre. To  elude  the  evidence  resulting  from  this  unexam- 
pled prodigy,  one  or  other  of  the  following  assertions  must  be 
maintained,  either  that  the  disciples  xvere  deceived  in  believing 
him  to  be  risen  from  the  dead,  or  that  they  combined  to  deceive  \ 
the  world  into  a  belief  of  that  imposition.-— Now  it  cannot  be 
credited,  that  they  themselves  were  deceived  in  this  matter, 
being  many  in  number,  and  having  the  testimony  of  their  eyes, 
in  seeing  their  master  repeatedly,  during  forty  days  ;  of  their 
ears,  in  hearing  his  voice ;  and  one,  the  most  incredulous  among 
them  of  his  feeling  in  touching'  his  person  and  probing  his 
wounds ;  nor  can  it  be  believed  that  they  conspired  to  propa^ 

•  Tertul.  in  Apolog. 


12  Essay  II, 

^ate  an  unavailing'  falsehood  of  this  nature  throughout  the  na- 
tions of  the  earth,  namely,  that  a  person,  put  to  death  in  Judea, 
had  risen  again  to  life,  without  any  prospect  to  themselves  for 
this  worlds  but  that  of  persecution,  torments,  and  a  cruel  death, 
which  they  successively  endured,  as  did  their  numerous  disci- 
ples after  them,  in  testimony  of  this  fact ;  or, /or  the  other  xvorldj 
but  the  vengeance  of  the  God  of  truth. 

Next  to  the  miracles,  wrought  by  Christ,  is  the  fulfilment  of 
the  ancient  prophecies  concerning  him,  in  proof  ot  the  religion 
taught  by  him.  To  mention  a  few  of  these :  he  was  bom  just 
after  the  sceptre  had  departed  from  the  tribe  of  Juda^Gtn.  xlix. 
10.;  at  the  end  of  seventy -txvo  weeks  of  years  from  the  restora- 
tion of  Jerusalem,  Dan,  ix,  24 ;  while  the  second  temple  of  Je- 
rusalem was  in  beings  Hagg.  ii.  7,  He  was  bom  in  Bethlehem^ 
Mic.  V.  2.;  worked  the  identical  miracles  foretold  of  hiJii^  Isai, 
XXXV.  5.  He  was  sold  by  his  perfidious  disciple  for  thirty 
pieces  of  silver^  which  were  laid  out  in  the  purchase  of  a  pot- 
ter''s  fields  Zach.  xi.  13.  He  was  scourged^  spit  upon^  Isai.  L 
6. ;  placed  among  malefactors^  Isai.  xxxiii.  12.  His  hands  and 
feet  were  transfixed  with  nails,  Ps,  xxii.  16.;  and  his  side  -was 
opened  with  a  spear,  Zach,  xii.  10.  Finally,  he  died^  was  bu- 
ried with  honour^  Isai.  liii.  9. ;  and  rose  again  to  life  without 
experiencing  corruption,  Ps.  xvi.  10.  The  sworn  enemies  of 
Christ,  the  Jews,  were,  during  many  hundred  years  before  his 
coming,  and  still  are  in  possession  of  the  Scriptures,  containing 
these  and  many  other  predictions  concerning  him,  which  were 
strictly  fulfilled. 

*  The  very  existence,  and,  other  circumstances  respecting  this 
extraordinary  people,  the    Jews,  are   so  many  arguments  in 
proof  of  Christianity.    They  have  now  subsisted,  as  a  distinct 
people,  for  more  than  four  thousand  years,  during  which  they 
have  again  and  again  been  subdued,  harassed,  and  almost  ex- 
tirpated.    Their  mighty  conquerors,  the  Philistines,  the  As- 
syrians, the  Persians,  the  Macedonians,  the  Syrians,  and  the 
Romans,  have,  in  their  turns,  ceased  to  exist  and  can  no  where 
be  found  as  distinct  nations:   while  the   Jews  exist  in  great 
numlDers,  and  are  known  in  every  part  of  the  world.     How  can 
this  be  accounted  for?  Why  has  God  preserved  them  alone, 
amongst  the  ancient  nations  of  the  earth?  The  truth  is,  they 
are  still  the  subject  of  prophecy,  with  resQ^ct  to  both  the  Old 
and  New  Testament.      They  exist  as  monuments  of  God's 
wrath  against  them ;  as  witnesses  to  the  truth  of  the  Scriptures 
which  condemn  them;  and  as  the  destined  subjects  of  his  final 
mercy  Ijefore  the  end  of  the  world.     They  are  to  be  found  in 
every  quarter  of  the  globe ;  but  in  the  condition  which  their 
great  legislator  Moses  threatened  them  with,  if  they  forsook 


Letter  IL  13 

the  Lord,  namely,  that  he  would  remove  them  into  all  the  king'' 
doms  of  the  earth.  Deut.  xxviii.  25.  That  they  should  become 
an  astonishment^  and  a  by-word^  among  all  nations^  ibid.  37. 
That  they  should  Jind  no  ease^  neither  should  the  sole  of  their 
foot  have  rest^  ibid.  65.  Finally,  they  are  every  where  seen,  but 
carrying,  written  on  their  foreheads,  the  curse  which  they  pro- 
nounced on  themselves  in  rejecting  their  Messiah:  his  blood  be 
upon  ics  and  upon  our  children.  Mat.  xxvii.  25.  Still  is  this 
extraordinary  people  preserved,  to  be,  in  the  end,  converted, 
and  to  find  mercy.  Rom,  xi.  26,  &c. 

SAMUEL  CAREY. 


LETTER  II. 

TO  JAMES  BROWN,  Esq.  fyc. 
PRELIMINARIES. 

JVinton,  October  20,  1801. 


% 


Dear  Sir, 

YOU  certainly  want  no  apology  for  writing  to  me  on  the 
subject  of  your  letter.     For  if,  as  St.  Peter  inculcates,  each 
Christian  ought  to  be  ready  ahuays  to  give  an  answer  to  every 
man  that  asketh  him  a  reason  of  the  hope  that  is  in  him^  1  Pet. 
iii.  15.  how  inexcusable  would  a  person  of  my  ministry  and 
commission  be,  who  am  a  debtor  both  to  the  Greeks  and  to  the 
Barbarians^  both  to  the  wise  and  the  unwise.,  Rom.  i.  14.  were 
I  unwilling  to  give  the  utmost  satisfaction  in  my  power,  res- 
pecting the  Catholic  religion,  to  any  human  being  whose  in- 
quiries  appear  to  proceed  from  a  serious  and  candid  mind,  / 
desirous  of  discovering  and  embracing  religious  truth,  such  as^ 
I  must  believe  yours  to  be.     -^d  yet  this  disposition  is  ex- 1    - 
ceedingly  rare  among  Christians.''*'*ih:ifinitely  the  greater  partly 
of  them,  in  choosing  a  system  of  religion,  or  in  adhering  to  one, 
are  guided  by  motives  of  interest,  worldly  honour,  or  conveni- 
ence.    These  inducements  not  only  rouse  their  worst  passions, 
but  also  blind  their  judgement;  so  as  to  create  hideous  phan- 
toms to  their  intellectual  eyes,  and  to  hinder  them  from  seeing 
the  most  conspicuous  objects  which  stand  before  them.     To 
such  inconsistent  Christians,  nothing  proves  so  irritating  as  the 


14  'Letter  IL 

attempt  to  disabuse  them  of  their  errors,  except  the  success  of 
it,  by  putting  it  out  of  their  power  to  defend  them  any  longer. 
These  are  they;  and  O!  how  infinite  is  their  number!  of  whom 
Christ  says,  theij  love  darkness  rather  than  light ^  John  iii.  16. ; 
and  who  say  to  the  prophets,  Prophesy  not  unto  us  right  things  : 
speak  unto  us  smooth  things,  Isai.  xxx.  10.      They  form  to 
themselves  a  false  conscience^  as  the  Jews  did,  when  they  mur- 
dered their  Messiah,  Acts  iii.  17.;  and  as  he  himself  foretold 
many  others  would  do,  in  murdering  his  disciples,  yohnxv'u  2. 
I  cannot  help  saying  that  I  myself  have  experienced  something  . 
of  this  spirit,  in  my  religious  discussions  with  persons  who  ' 
have  been  loudest  in  professing  their  candour  and  charity.  ' 
Hence,  I  make  no  doubt  that,  if  the  elucidation  which  you  call 
for  at  my  hands,  for  your  numerous  society,  should  happen, 
by  anv  means  to  become  public,  that  I  shall  have  to  eat  the 
bread  of  affliction^  and  drink  the  -water  of  tribulation^  1  Kings 
xxii.  27.  for  this  discharge  of  my  duty,  perhaps  for  the  remain- 
der of  my  life.     But,  as  the  apostle  writes,  none  of  these  things 
move  me;  neither  count  I  my  life  dear  to  me,  so  that  I  may 
Jinish  7ny  course  with  joy,  and  the  ministry  which  I  have  re* 
'  ^rom  the  Lord  Jesus,  Acts  xx.  24. 
"remains,  sir,  to  settle  the  conditions  of  our  correspondence. 
What  I  propose  is,  that,  in  the  first  place,  we  should  mutually, 
and  indeed  all  of  us  who  are  concerned  in  this  friendly  contro- 
versy, be  at  perfect  liberty  to  speak,  without  offence  to  any  one, 
of  doctrines,  practices,  and  persons,  as  we  judge  best  for  the 
discovery  of  truth :  secondly,  that  we  should  be  disposed,  in 
common,  as  far  as  poor  human  nature  will  permit,  to  investi- 
gate truth  with  impartiality ;  to  acknowledge  it,  when  disco- 
vered, with  candour ;  and,  of  course,  to  renounce  every  error 
and  unfounded  prejudice  that  may  be  detected,  on  any  side, 
whatever  it  may  cost  us  in  so  doing,     I,  for  my  part,  dear  sir, 
here  solemnly  promise,  that  I  will  publicly  renounce  the  reli- 
gion, of  which  I  am  a  minister,  and  will  induce  as  many  of  my 
iiock,  as  I  may  have  influence  over,  to  do  the  same,  should  it 
prove  to  be  that  "mass  of  absurdity,  bigotry,  superstition,  ido- 
V  latry,  and  immorality,"  which  you,  sir,  and  most  Protestants 
\conceive  it  to  be;  nay,  even  ^£1  should  not  succeed  in  clearing 
,  I  it  of  these  respective  charge^  To  religious  controversy,  when 
vNyfl^nating  in  its  proper  motives,  a  desire  of  serving  God  and 
securing  our  salvation,  I  cannot  declare  mysrff  an  enemy,  with- 
out virtually  condemning  the  conduct  of  Christ  himself,  who, 
on  every  occasion,  arraigned  and  refuted  the  errors  of  the  Pha- 
risees :  but  I  cannot  conceive  any  hypocrisy  so  detestable  as  that 
of  ascending  the  pulpit  or  employing  the  pen  on  sacred  subjects 
to  serve  our  temporal  interest,  our  resentment,  or  our  prido. 


Letter,  III,  1 

under  pretext  of  promoting  or  defending  religious  truth ^To 

inquirers,  in  the  former  predicament,  I  hold  myself  a  debtor, 
as  I  have  already  said ;  but  the  circumstances  must  be  extraor- 
dinary to  induce  me  to  hold  a  communication  with  persons  in 
the  latter.  Lastly,  as  you  appear,  sir,  to  approve  of  the  plan  I 
spoke  of  in  my  first  letter  to  Dr.  Sturges,  I  mean  to  pursue  it 
on  the  present  occasion.  This,  however,  will  necessarily  throw 
back  the  examination  of  your  charges  to  a  considerable  dis- 
tance ;  as  several  other  important  inquiries  must  precede. 

I  am,  &c. 

J.  M. 


LETTER  III. 

From  JAMES  BROWN,  Esq.  to  the  Rev.  J,  M.  D,  V. 
PRELIMINARIES. 

Nexv  Cottage^  Oct,  30,  1801. 
Reverend  Sir, 

I  HAVE  been  favoured,  in  due  course,  with  yours  of  the 
20th  instant,  which  I  have  communicated  to  those  persons  of 
our  society,  whom  I  have  had  an  opportunity  of  seeing.  No 
circumstance  could  strike  us  with  greater  sorrow,  than  that  you 
should  suffer  any  inconvenience  from  your  edifying  promptness 
to  comply  with  our  well  meant  request,  and  wc  confidently  trust 
that  nothing  of  the  kind  will  take  place  through  our  fault.  We 
agree  with  you,  as  to  the  necessity  of  perfect  freedom  of  speech, 
where  the  discovery  of  important  truths  is  the  real  object  of 
inquiry.  Hence,  while  we  are  at  liberty  to  censure  many  of 
•your  popes,  and  other  clergy,  Mr.  Topham  will  not  be  offended 
with  any  thing  that  you  can  prove  against  Calvin ;  nor  will  Mr. 
Rankin  quarrel  with  you  for  exposing  the  faults  of  George  Fox 
and  James  Naylor ;  nor  shall  I  complain  of  you  for  any  thing 
that  you  can  make  out  against  our  venerable  Latimer  or  Cran- 
mer ;  I  say  the  same  of  doctrines  and  practices,  as  of  persons. 
If  you  are  guilty  of  Idolatry,  or  we  of  heresy,  we  are  respec- 
tively unfortunate,  and  the  greatest  charity  we  can  do,  is  to 
point  out  to  each  other  the  danger  of  our  respective  situations, 
to  their  full  extent.     Not  to  renounce  error  and  embrace  truth 


16  Letter  IV. 

of  even-  kind,  when  -sve  clearly  see  it,  would  be  folly ;  and  to 
negljct  doing  this,  when  the  question  is  about  religious  truth, 
would  be  folly  and  wickedness  combined  together.  Finally, 
we  cheerfully  leave  you  to  follow  what  course  you  please,  and 
to  whatever  extent  you  please,  provided  you  only  give  us  such 
Siitisfaction  as  you  can  give,  on  the  subjects  I  mentioned  in  my 
former  letter. 

I  am,  Rev.  Sir,  &c, 

JAMES  BROWN. 


LETTER  IV. 

To  JAMES  BROWN,  Esq.  ^c, 
DISPOSITIONS  FOR  RELIGIOUS  IN^UIRl 
Dear  Sir, 

THE  dispositions  which  you  profess,  on  the  part  of  your 
,riends,  as  well  as  yourself,  I  own,  please  me,  and  animate  me 
to  undertake  the  task  you  impose  upon  me.  Nevertheless, 
availing  myself  of  the  liberty  of  speech  which  you  and  your 
friends  allow  me,  I  am  forced  to  observe  that  there  is  nothing 
in  which  men  are  more  apt  to  deceive  themselves,  than  in  think- 
ing themselves  to  be  free  from  religious  prejudices,  and  sincere 
in  seeking  after,  and  resolved  to  embrace  and  follow  the  truth 
of  religion,  in  opposition  to  their  preconceived  opinions  and 
wordly  interests.  How  many  imitate  Pilate,  who,  when  he 
had  asked  our  Saviour  the  question,  JFhat  is  truth?  presently 
went  out  of  his  company,  before  he  could  receive  an  answer  to  > 
it!  jfoh}i  xviii.  38.  How  many  others  resemble  the  rich  young  ' 
man,  who,  having  interrogated  Christ,  JVhat  good  thing- shall 
I  do  that  I  imv-j  have  eternal  life?  when  thii^divine  master  an- 
swered him,  if  thou  wilt  be  perfect^  go  and  sell  what  thou  hast 
and  give  to  the  poor  ; — zuent  away  sorrowful!  Mat.  xix.  22.  Fi- 
nally, how  many  more  act  like  certain  presumptuous  disciples 
of  our  Lord,  who,  when  he  had  propounded  to  them  a  mystery 
beyond  their  conception,  that  of  the  real  presence,  in  these 
words,  J^  /Icsh  is  meat  indeed^  and  fny  blood  is  drink  indeed;^-. 


Letter  IV.  \7 

said,  this  is  a  hard  saying";  who  can  hear  it  P — a}td  went  back 
and  walked  ?io  ?nore  with  him!  John  vi.  56.  O!  if  all  Christians, 
of  the  different  sects  and  opinions,  were  but  possessed  of  the 
sincerity,  disinterestedness,  and  earnestness,  to  serve  their  God, 
and  save  their  souls,  which  a  Francis  Walsingham,  kinsman  to 
the  great  statesman  of  that  name,  a  Hugh  Paulin  Cressy,  dean 
of  Laughlin,  and  prebendary  of  Windsor,  and  an  Anthony 
Ulric,  duke  of  Brunswick  and  Lunenburgh,  prove  themselves 
to  have  been  possessed  of;  the  first,  in  his  Search  into  Matters 
of  Religion;  the  second,  in  his  Exomologesis,  or  Motives  of 
Conversion,  ^c;  and  the  last,  in  his  Fifty  Reasons;  how  soon 
\70uld  all  and  every  one  of  our  controversies  cease,  and  we  be 
all  united  in  one  faith,  hope,  and  charity!  I  will  here  transcribe, 
from  the  preface  to  the  Fifty  Reasons,  what  the  illustrious  rela- 
tive of  his  majesty  says,  concerning  the  dispositions,  with  which 
he  set  about  inquiring  into  the  grounds  and  differences  of  the 
several  systems  of  Christianity,  when  he  began  to  entertain 
doubts  concerning  the  truth  of  that  in  which  he  had  been  edu- 
cated; namely,  Lutheranism.  He  says,  "First,  I  earnestly  im- 
plored the  aid  and  grace  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  with  all  my 
power,  begged  the  light  of  true  faith,  from  God,  the  father 
of  lights,"  &c.  "  Secondly,  I  made  a  strong  resolution,  by  the 
grace  of  God,  to  avoid  sin,  well  knowing  that  Wisdom  will  not 
enter  into  a  corrupt  mind,  nor  dwell  in  a  body  subject  to  sin,"*^ 
Wisd.  i,  4.  "and  I  am  convinced,  and  was  so  then,  that  the  rea- 
son why  so  many  are  ignorant  of  the  true  faith,  and  do  not  em- 
brace it,  is  because  they  are  plimged  into  several  vices,  and  par- 
ticularly into  carnal  sins."  Then,  "Thirdly,  I  renounced  all 
sorts  of  prejudices,  whatever  they  were,  which  incline  men  to 
one  religion  more  than  another,  which  unhappily  I  might  have 
formerly  espoused,  and  I  brought  myself  to  a  perfect  indifference, 
so  as  to  be  ready  to  embrace  whichsoever  the  grace  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  the  light  of  reason,  should  point  out  to  me,  without 
any  regard  to  the  advantages  and  inconveniences,  that  might 
attend  it  in  this  world."  "  Lastly,  I  entered  upon  this  delibera- 
tion, and  this  choice,  in  the  manner  I  should  wish  to  have  done 
It  at  the  hour  of  my  death,  and  in  a  full  conviction,  that,  at  the 
day  of  judgment,  I  must  give  an  account  to  God,  why  I  fol- 
l-?wed  this  religion  in  preference  to  all  the  rest."  The  princely 
inquirer  finishes  this  account  of  himself  with  the  following  aw- 
ful reflections :  "  Man  has  but  one  soul,  which  will  be  eternally 
-either  damned  or  saved.  IVhat  doth  it  avail  a  man  to  gain  the 
whole  world  and  lose  his  own  soul?  Mat.  xvi.  26. — Eternity 
knows  no  end.  The  course  of  it  is  perpetual.  It  is  a  series 
of  unlimited  duration. — There  is  no  comparison  between  things 
infinite  and  those  which  are  not  so.     O !  the  happiness  of  the 

C 


18  Letter  V. 

eternity  of  the  saints !  O !  the  wretchedness  of  the  eternity  of  the 
damned.     One  of  these  two  eternities  awaits  us !" 

I  remain,  Sir,  yours,  &c. 

J.M. 


LETTER  V. 

To  JAMES  BROWN,  Esq . 

METHOD  OF  FINDING  OUT  THE  TRUE 
RELIGION. 

Dear  Sir, 

IT  is  obvious  to  common  sense,  that,  in  order  to  find  out 
any  hidden  thing,  or  to  do  any  difficult  thing,  we  must  first 
discover,  and  then  follow,  the  proper  method  for  such  purpose. 
If  we  do  not  take  the  right  road  to  any  distant  place,  it  cannot 
be  expected  that  we  should  arrive  at  it.     If  we  get  hold  of  a 
wrong  clue,  we  shall  never  extricate  ourselves  from  a'labyrinth. 
Some  persons  choose  their  religion  as  they  do  their  clothes,  by 
fancy.      They  are  pleased,  for  example,  with  the  talents  of  a 
preacher,  when  presently  they  adopt  his  creed.     Many  adhere 
to  their  religious  system,  merely  because  they  were  educated 
in  it,  and  because  it  was  that  of  their  parents  and  family ;  which, 
if  it  were  a  reasonable  motive  for  their  resolution,  would  equally 
excuse  Jews,  Turks,  and  Pagans,  for  persisting  in  their  respec- 
tive impiety,  and  would  impeach  the  preaching  of  Christ  and 
his  apostles!    Others  glory  in  their  religion,  because  it  is  the 
one  established  in  this  their  countn ,  so  renowned  for  science, 
literature,  and  arms  :  not  reflecting  that  the  polished  and  con- 
quering nations  of  antiquity,  the  Egyptians,  Assyrians,  Per- 
sians, Greeks,  and  Romans,  were  left,  by  th^inscrutable  judg- 
ments of  God,  in  darkness  and  the  shadozv  of  death^  while  a  poor 
oppressed  and  despised  people  on  the  banks  of  the  Jordan,  were 
theonlydepositary  of  divine  truth,  and  the  sole  truly  enlighten- 
ed nation.  But,  far  the  greater  part  even  of  Christians,  of  every 
denomination,  make  the  business  of  eternity  subservient  to  that 
of  time,  and  profess  the  religion  which  suits  best  their  interest, 
their  reputation,  and  their  convenience.      I  trust  that  none  of 


Letter  V.  19 

your  respectable  society  fall  under  any  of  these  descriptions. 
They  all  have,  or  fancy  they  have,  a  rational  method  of  disco- 
vering religious  truth,  in  other  words  an  adequate  rule  of  faith. 
Before  I  enter  into  any  disquisition  on  this  all-important  con- 
troversy, concerning  the  right  rule  offaithy  on  which  the  deter- 
mination of  every  other  depends,  I  will  lay  down  three  funda- 
mental maxims,  the  truth  of  which,  I  believe,  no  rational  Chris- 
tian will  dispute. 

First,  our  divine  master^  Christy  in  establishing  a  religion 
here  on  earthy  to  zuhich  all  the  nations  of  it  were  invited,  Mat. 
xviii.  19,  left  some  RULE  or  method,  bi/  which  those  persons, 
who  sincerely  seek  for  it,  may  certainly  find  it » 

Secondly,  this  rule  or  method,  must  be  SECURE  and  never- 
failing;  so  as  not  to  be  ever  liable  to  lead  a  rational,  sincere  in- 
quirer,  into  error,  impiety,  or  immorality,  of  any  kind. 

Thirdly,  This  rule  or  method  must  be  UNIVERSAL,  that 
is  to  say,  adapted  to  the  abilities  and  other  circujnstances,  of  all 
those  persons  for  whom  the  religion  itself  was  intended;  name' 
ly  the  great  bulk  of  mankind. 

By  adhering  to  these  undeniable  maxims,  we  shall  quickly, 
dear  sir,  and  clearly,  discover  the  method  appointed  by  Christ, 
for  arriving  at  the  knowledge  of  the  truths  which  he  has  taught, 
in  other  words,  at  the  right  rule  of  faith.  Being  possessed  of 
this  rule,  we  shall  have  nothing  else,  of  course,  to  do  than  to 
make  use  of  it,  for  securely,  and,  I  trust,  amicably,  settling  all 
our  controversies.  This  is  the  short  and  satisfactory  meUiod 
of  composing  religious  differences,  which  I  alluded  to  m  my 
above  mentioned  letter  to  Dr.  Sturges.  To  discuss  them  aU, 
separately  is  an  endless  task,  whereas  this  method  reduces  them 
to  a  single  question. 

I  am,  &c. 

J.  M* 


(     20     ) 


LETTER  YI. 

TO  JAMES  BROWN,  Esq. 

THE  FIRST  FALLACIOUS  RULE  OF  FAITH, 
Dear  Sir, 

AMONG  serious  Christians,  who  profess  to  make  the  dis- 
covery and  practice  of  religion  their  first  and  earnest  care, 
three  different  methods  or  rules  have  been  adopted  for  this 
purpose.  The  first  consists  in  a  supposed  private  inspiration^ 
or  an  immediate  light  and  motion  of  God's  spirit,  communi- 
cated to  the  individual.  This  was  the  rule  of  faith  and  con- 
duct formerly  professed  by  the  Montanists,  the  Anabaptists, 
the  Family  of  Love,  and  is  now  professed  by  the  Quakers,  the 
Moravians,  and  different  classes  of  the  Methodists,  The  se- 
cond of  these  rules  is  the  written  Word  of  God,  or  THE  BI- 
BLE, according"  as  it  is  understood  by  each  particular  reader 
or  hearer  of  it.  This  is  the  professed  rule  of  the  more  regu- 
lar sects  of  Protestants,  such  as  the  Lutherans  the  Calvinists, . 
the  Socinians,  the  Church  of  England  men.  The  third  rule  is . 
THE  WORD  OF  GOD,  at  large,  -whether  written  in  the 
Bible,  or  handed  down  from  the  apostles  in  continued  miccession 
by  the  Catholic  church,  and  as  it  is  understood  and  explained 
by  this  church.  To  speak  more  accurately,  besides  their  rule 
of  faith,  namely,  Scripture  and  tradition.  Catholics  acknow- 
ledge an  unerring-  judge  of  controversy,  or  sure  guide  in  all 
matters  relating  to  salvation,  namely,  THE  CHURCH.  I 
shall  now  proceed  to  show  that  the  first  mentioned  rule,  name- 
ly, a  supposed  private  inspiration,  is  quite  fallacious,  in  as 
much  as  it  is  liable  to  conduct,  and  has  conducted  many,  into  ac- 
knowledged errors  and  impiety. 

About  the  middle  of  the  second  age  of  Christianit)^^,  Monta- 
nus,  Maximilla  and  Priscilla,  w^ith  their  followers,  by  adopt- 
ing this  enthusiastical  rule,  rushed  into  the  excess  of  folly  and 
blasphemy.  They  taught  that  the  Holy  Spirit,  having  failed  tc» 
save  mankind,  by  Moses,  and  afterwards  hf  Christ,  had  en- 
lightened iind  sanctified  them  to  accomplish  this  great  work. 
The  strictness  of  their  precepts,  and  apparent  sanctity  of  their 
lives,  deceived  many,  till  at  length  the  two  former  proved  what 
spirit  they  were  guided  by,  in  hanging  themselves.*     Several 

•  Euseb.  Ecclcs.  Hist.  1.  v.  c.  15. 


Letter  VL  jl 

j*^'  -      ,^ 'ft. 

other  heretics  became  dupes  of  the  same  principles  in  the  pri- 
mitive and  the  middle  ages ;  but  it  was  reserved  for  the  time 
of  religious  licentiousness,  improperly  called  the  Reformation, 
to  display  the  full  extent  of  its  absurdity  and  impiety.  In  less 
than  five  years  after  Luther  had  sounded  the  trumpet  of  evan- 
gelical liberty,  the  sect  of  Anabaptists  arose  in  (Germany  and 
the  Low  Countries.  They  professed  to  hold  immediate  com- 
munication with  God,  and  to  be  ordered  by  him  to  despoil  and 
kill  all  the  wicked,  and  to  establish  a  kingdom  of  the  just,*  who, 
to  become  such,  were  all  to  be  rebaptized.  Carlostad,  Luther's 
first  disciple  of  note,  embraced  this  Ultra-Reformation  ;  but  its 
acknowledged  head,  during  his  reign,  was  John  Bockhold,  a 
taylor  of  Leyden,  who  proclaimed  himself  king  of  Sion,  and 
who,  during  a  certain  time,  was  really  sovereign  of  Munster, 
in  Lower  Germany,  where  he  committed  the  greatest  imagina- 
ble excesses,  marrying  eleven  wives  at  a  time,  and  putting  them, 
and  numberless  other  of  his  subjects  to  death,  at  the  motion  of 
his  supposed  interior  spirit.f  He  declared  that  God  had  made 
him  a  present  of  Amsterdam  and  other  cities,  which  he  sent 
parties  of  his  disciples  to  take  possession  of.  These  ran  naked 
through  the  streets,  howling  out,  "  Wo  to  Babylon  ;  wo  to  the 
"wicked  ;"  and,  when  they  were  apprehended,  and  on  the  point 
of  being  executed  for  their  seditions  and  murders,  they  sung 
and  danced  on  the  scaffold,  exulting  in  the  imaginary  light  of 
their  spirit.t  Herman,  another  Anabaptist,  v/as  moved  by  his  spi- 
rit to  declare  himself  the  Messiah,  and  thus  to  evangelize  the  peo- 
ple, his  hearers  ;  "  Kill  the  priests,  kill  all  the  magistrates  in  the 
world  :  repent:  your  redemption  is  at  hand."§  One  of  their 
chief  and  most  accredited  preachers,  David  George,  persuaded 
a  numerous  sect  of  them,  that  "  the  doctrine  both  of  the  Old 
and  New  Testament  was  imperfect,  but  that  his  own  was  per- 
fect, and  that  he  was  the  true  Son  of  God»''\  I  do  not  notice 
these  impieties  and  other  crimes  for  their  singularity  or  their 
atrociousness,  but  because  they  were  committed  upon  the  prin- 
ciple and  under  a  full  conviction  of  an  individual  and  uncon- 
trolable  inspiration^  on  the  part  of  their  dupes  and  perpetra- 
tors. 

Nor  has  our  own  country  been  more  free  from  this  enthusi- 
astic principle  than  Germany  and  Holland.     Nicholas,  a  disci- 

•  •*  Cum  Deo  colloquium  esse  et  mandatum  habere  se  dicebant,  ut,  impua 
omnibus  interfectis,  novum  constituerent  mundum,  in  quo  pii  solum  ct  inno- 
eeutes  viverent  et  rerum,  potirentur." — Sleidan.  DeStat.  Rel.  etReip.  Coo»> 
ment.  1.  iii.  p.  45. 

fHist,  Abreg-.  dela  Reform,  par  Gerard  Brandt,  torn.  i.  p.  46.  Moshcim, 
Bccles   Hist,  by  Maclaine,  vol.  iv.  p.  452. 
^  I  Brandt,  p,  49,  &c.  §  Brandt,  p.  51.      ■     |  Mo»hcim,  vol.  iv.  p.  4M. 


ft2  Letter,  VI. 

pie  of  the  above  mentioned  David  George,  came  over  to  Eng- 
land with  a  supposed  commission  from  God  to  teach  men  that 
the  essence  of  religion  consists  in  the  feelings  of  divine  love, 
and  that  all  other  things  relating  either  to  faith  or  worship,  are 
of  no  moment.^'*^  He  extended  this  maxim  even  to  the  funda- 
mental precepts  of  morality,  professing  to  continue  in  sm  that 
grace  might  abound.  His  followers,  under  the  name  of  the 
Familists,  or  The  Fami/y  o/Love^  were  very  numerous  at  the 
end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  about  which  time,  Hacket,  a  Cal- 
vinist,  giving  way  to  the  same  spirit  of  delusion,  became  deeply 
persuaded  that  the  spirit  of  the  Messiah  had  descended  upon 
him  ;  and,  having  made  several  proselytes,  he  sent  tw^o  of  them, 
Arthington  and  Coppinger,  to  proclaim  through  the  streets  of 
London,  that  Christ  was  come  thither  with  his  fan  in  his  hand. 
This  spirit,  instead  of  being  repressed,  became  still  more  un- 
governable at  the  sight  of  the  scaffold  and  the  gibbet,  prepared 
in  Cheapside  for  his  execution.  Accordingly  he  continued  till 
the  last,  exclaiming,  "  Jehova,  Jehova  ;  don't  you  see  the  hea- 
vens open,  and  Jesus  coming  to  deliver  me,  &c."f  Who  has 
UQt  heard  of  Venner,  and  his  Fifth  Monarchy-men,  who,  guid- 
ed by  the  same  private  spirit  of  inspiration,  rushed  from  their 
meeting  house  in  Coleman  street,  proclaiming  that  they  would 
*'  acknowledge  no  sovereign  but  king  Jesus,  and  that  they  would 
not  sheathe  their  swords,  till  they  had  made  Babylon  (that  is 
monarchy)  a  lueBing  and  a  curse,  not  only  in  England,  but  also 
throughout  foreign  countries  ;  having  an  assurance  j^hat  one  of 
them  would  put  a  thousand  enemies  to  flight,  and  two  of  them 
ten  thousand  ?"  Venner  being  "  taken  and  led  to  execution, 
with  several  of  his  followers,  protested  it  was  not  he,  hut  J^jsus, 
who  had  acted  as  their  leader.":(:  I  pass  over  the  une-  a-iplcd 
follies  and  the  horrors  of  the  grand  rebellion,  having  det  iled 
many  of  them  elsewhere.^  It  is  enough  to  remark  that  while 
many  of  these  were  committed  from  the  licentiousnes  f  pri- 
vate interpretation  of  Scripture,  many  others  origini  t  d  in  the 
enthusiastic  opinion  which  I  am  now  combating,  that  <  f  ;.n' im- 
mediate individual  inspiration,  equal,  if  not  superior,  t;i]iat  or 
the  Scriptures  themselves. || 

It  was  in  the  midst  of  these  religious  and  civil  coititi  •  ions 
that  the  most  extraordinary  people  of  all  those  who  ha\ c  :  opt- 
ed the  fallacious  rule  of  private  inspiration, parted  ip  rt  h  call 
of  George  Fox,  a  shoe-maker  of  Leicestershire.     Hi        nd^ 

•  Ibid.  Brandt. 

t  Fuller's  Cliurch  Hist.  b.  ix.  p.  113.     Stow's  Annals,  A.  I).  1591. 
tEchard'K  Hist.  ofKnj^.  kc. 
S  Letters  to  a  Prebendarv.     Reig-n  of  Charles  I. 
^1  See  Uie  remarkable  history  of  the  niilitarv  preachers  at  King-ston.     Ibid 


Letter  VI,  25 

mental  propositions,  as  laid  down  by  the  most  able  of  his  foU 
lowers,*  are,  that, "  The  Scriptures  are  not  the  adequate  prima-, 
ry  rule  of  faith  and  manners^ — but  a  secondary  rule^  subordu 
nate  to   the  spirit^  from  which  they  have  their  excellency  and 
certainty  :"f  that  the  testimony  of  the  spirit  is  that  alone  by 
which  the  true  knowledge  of  God  hath  been,  is,  and  can  be  re- 
vealed :":j:  that  "  all  true  and  acceptable  worship  of  God  is  of- 
fered in  the  inward  and  immediate  moving  and  drawing  of  his 
own  spirit,  which  is  neither  limited  to  places,  times,  nor  per- 
sons."§     Such  are  the   avowed  principles  of  the  people  called 
Quakers  :  let  us  now  see  some  of  the  fruits  of  those  principles, 
as  recorded  by  themselves,  in  their  founder  and  first  apostles. 

George  Fox  tells  of  himself,  that  at  the  beginning  of  his  mis- 
sion he  was  "  moved  to  go  to  several  courts  and  steeple-houses, 
(churches)  at  Mansfield,  and  other  places,  to  warn  ihem  to 
leave  ofFoppression  and  oaths,  and  to  turn  from  deceit,  andto  turn 
to  the  Lord.^U  On  these  occasions  the  language  and  behaviour 
of  his  spirit  was  very  far  from  the  meekness  and  respect  for 
constituted  authorities  of  the  Gospel  spirit,  as  appears  from  dif- 
ferent passages  in  t.is  Journal.^  He  tells  us  of  one  of  his  disci- 
ples, William  Simpson,  who  was  "moved  of  the  Lord  to  go,  at 
several  times,  for  three  years,  naked  and  barefoot  before  them, 
as  a  sign  unto  them,  in  markets,  courts,  towns,  cities,  to  priests* 
houses,  and  to  great  men's  houses,  telling  them,  so  should  they 
be  all  stripped  naked.  Another  Friend,  one  Robert  Hunting- 
don was  moved  of  the  Lord  to  go  into  Carlisle  steeple-house 
with  a  white  sheet  about  him."**  We  are  told  of  a  female 
Friend  who  went  "stark  naked  in  the  midst  of  public  worship, 
into  WTiitehall  chapel,  when  Cromwell  was  there;"  and  ano- 

,    •  Kobert  Barclay's  Apology  for  the  Quakers.    '^7^^^ -'<•---  -     ^a- 

j-  Propos.  m.  In  defending  this  proposition,  Barclay  cites  some  of  tho 
Yriends,  who,  being  unable  to  reaJ  the  Scriptures,  even  in  the  vulgar  lan^ 
guage,  and  being  pressed  by  adversaries  with  passages  from  it,  boldly  denitdt 
from  the  manifestation  of  truth  in  their  cum  hearts  ^  that  such  passages  were  con- 
tained m  the  Scriptures f  /?,  82. 

\  Propos.  IL  ^  Propos.  XI. 

B  See  the  Journal  of  George  Fox,  written  by  himself,  and  published  by  hia 
disciple  Penn,  son  of  admiral  Pcnn,  folio,  p.  17. 

\  I  shall  satisfy  myself  with  citing  part  of  his  letter,  written  in  1660,  t8  ' 

Charles  II. *«  King  Charles,  thou  camest  not  into  this  nation  by  sword  no§ 

by  victory  of  war,  but  by  the  power  of  the  Lord.  And  if  thou  dost  bear  the 
sword  in  vain,  and  let  drunkenness,  oaths,  plays,  May-games,  with  fiddler*^ 
drums,  and  trumpets  to  play  at  them,  with  such  hke  abominations  and  vanities, 
be  encouraged,  or  go  unpunished,  as  setting  up  of  May-poles,  with  the  image 
of  the  crown  a-top  of  them,  the  nation  will  quickly  turn,  like  Sodom  and  Go* 
morrah,  and  be  as  bad  as  the  old  world,  who  grieved  the  Lord,  till  he  ove»- 
threw  them  :  and  so  he  will  you,  if  these  things  be  iio*  suddenly  prevented/* 
*c.     G.  F.'s  Journal,  p.  225. 

••Journal,  p.  239. 


24  Letter  VL 

ther  woman,  who  came  into  the  parliament  house  with  a  trench' 
cr  in  her  hand,  which  she  broke  in  pieces,  saying,  thus  shall  he 
he  broke  in  pieces^ — One  came  to  the  door  of  the  parliament 
house  with  a  drawn  sword,  and  wounded  several,  saying,  he 
was  inspired  by  the  Holy  Spirit  to  kill  every  man  that  sat  in 
tliat  house. "=5^     But  on  no  one  occasion  have  the  Friends,  with 
George  Fox  himself,  been  so  embarrassed  to  save  their  rule  of 
filthy  as  they  have  been  to  reconcile  with  it  the  conduct  of 
*James  Naylor.f      When  certain  low  and  disorderly  people  in 
Hampshire,  disgraced  their  society  and  became  obnoxious  to 
the  laws,  G.  Fox  disowned  them,:|:  but,  when  a  Friend  of  James 
Navlor's  character  and  services^  became  the  laughing-stock  of 
the  nation  for  his  presumption  and  blasphemy,  there  was  no 
other  way  for  the  society  to  separate  his  cause  from  their  own, 
but  bv  abandoning  their  fundamental  principles,  which  leaves 
everv  man  to  follow  the  spirit  ruithin  him^as  he  himself  feels  it. 
The  fact  is,  James  Naylor,  like  so  many  other  dupes  of  a  sup- 
posed private  spirit,  fancied  himself  to  be  the  Messiah,  and  in 
this  character  rode  into  Bristol,  his  disciples  spreading  their 
garments  before  him,  and  crying,  Holy^  holij^  holy^  hosannah  in 
the  highest:  and  when  he  had  been  scourged  by  order  of  par- 
liament, for  his  impiety,  he  permitted  the  fascinated  women^ 
who  followed  him,  to  kiss  his  feet  and  his  wounds,  and  to  hail 
him  "the  prince  of  peace,  the  rose  of  Sharon,  the  fairest  ot 
ten  thousand,' 'II  &:c. 

I  pass  over  many  sects  of  less  note,  as  the  Mug^letonians, 
the  Labbadists,  &c.  -who,  by  pursuing  the  meteor  of  a  supposed 
inward  light,  were  led  into  the  most  impious  and  immoral  prac- 
tices. Allied  to  these  are  the  Moravian  brethren,  or  Hernhut- 
tcrs,  so  called  from  Hemhuth  in  Moravia,  where  their  apostle, 
count  Zinzendorf,  made  an  establishment  for  them.  They  arc 
now  spread  over  England,  with  ministers  and  bishops  appoint- 
ed by  others  resident  at  Hernhuth.  Their  rule  of  faith,  as  laid 
down  by  Zinzendorf,  is  an  imaginary  inward  light,   against 

•  Maclaine's  note  on  Mosheim,  vol.  v,  p.  470. 

f  See  History  of  the  Quakers,  bv  William  Sewel,  folio,  p.  138.  Journal  of  C. 
Fox,  p.  220. 

t  Journal  of  O.  Fox,  p.  320. 
•    ^  Ibid.  p.  230.     Senel's  Hist,  of  Quakers,  p.  140. 

I  Rchard's  Hist.  Maclaine's  Mosheim.  Neals  Hist.  ^  Puritans,  Inclosing 
this  account  of  tlie  Quakers,  we  may  remark  that  there  is  no  appear.ance  yet 
of  the  fulfilment  of  the  confident  propliecy  with  which  Barclay  concludes  his 
Apolo.e;-y  :  •*  That  little  spavk  (Quakerism)  that  hath  appeared,  shall  grow  to 
the  cousuming  of  whatsoever  shall  stand  up  to  oppose  it.  The  mouth  of  the 
Lord  hath  spoken  it !  Yea;  he  tliat  hath  risen  in  a  small  remnant,  sliall  arise 
A»d  g-o  on  by  the  same  arm  of  power  in  liis  spiritual  manifestation  until  he  hath 
couquercd  all  his  enemies  :  ujitU  all  the  kiug^doms  of  the  earth  become  th« 
kiiu{fdoin  of  Jesus  Christ." 


Letter  VL  US 

s 

which  the  true  believer  cannot  sin.  This  they  are  taught  to 
wait  for  in  quiet,  omitting  prayer,  reading  the  Scriptures,  and 
other  worh,*  They  deny  that  even  the  moral  law  contained 
in  the  Scriptures  is  a  rule  of  life  for  believers.  Having  consi- 
dered this  system  in  all  its  bearings,  we  are  the  less  surprised 
at  the  disgusting  obscenity,  mingled  with  blasphemy,  which  is 
to  be  met  with  in  the  theological  tracts  of  the  German  count.f 
The  next  system  of  delusion  which  I  shall  mention,  as  pro- 
ceeding from  the  fatal  principle  of  an  i?2terior  rule  of  faith! 
though  framed  in  England,  was  also  the  work  of  a  foreign  no- 
bleman, baron  Swedenborg.  His  first  supposed  revelation  was 
at  an  eating-house  in  London,  about  the  year  1745.  "After  I 
had  dined,"  says  he,  "  a  man  appeared  to  me  sitting  in  the  cor- 
ner of  the  room,  who  cried  out  to  me,  with  a  terrible  voice, 
Don't  eat  so  much.  The  following  night  the  same  man  a^BP^^r- 
ed  to  me,  shining  with  light,  and  said  to  me,  lam  the  Lord^ 
your  Creator  and  Redeemer^  I  have  chosenyou  to  explain  to  men 
the  interior  and  spiritual  sense  of  the  Scriptures:  I  will  dictate 
to  you  what  you  are  to  write,^^^  His  imaginary  communica- 
tions with  God  and  the  angels  were  as  frequent  and  familiar  as 
those  of  Mahomed,  and  his  conceptions  of  heavenly  things  were 
as  gross  and  incoherent  as  those  of  the  Arabian  impostor.  Suf- 
fice it  to  say  that  his  God  is  a  mere  man,  his  angels  are  male  and 
female,  who  marry  together  and  follow  various  trades  and  pro- 
fessions. Finally,  his  New  Jerusalem,  which  is  to  be  spread, 
over  the  whole  earth,  is  so  little  different  from  this  sublunary 
world  that  the  entrance  into  it  is  imperceptible,^  So  far  is  true, 
that  the  New  Jerusalemites  are  spread  throughout  England, 
and  have  chapels  in  most  of  its  principal  towns. |1: 

•  Wesley,  in  a  letter  which  he  inscribes  "To  the  church  of  God  at  Hero- 
huth/  says,  *'  There  are  many  whom  yoirr  brethren  have  advised,  though 
not  in  their  public  preaching-,  not  to  use  tlie  Ordinances-— reading-  the  Scrip- 
ture, praying-,  communicating-  ;  as  the  doing  these  thing-s  is  seeking  salvation 
by  works'.  Some  of  our  Eng-lish  brethren  (Moravians)  say.  You  willnever  hav§ 
faith  till  you  leave  off  the  church  and  the  sacraments.-  as  many  go  to  hell  by  prau- 
ing  as  by  thieving."  Journal,  1740.  John  Nelson,  in  his  own  Journal,  tells 
us,  tliat  tlie  Moravians  call  their  religion  the  Liberty,  and  the  Foot  Sinncrship, 
adding, that  "  they  sell  their  prayer  books,  and  leave  off  reading  and  praying- 
to  follow  the  Lamb . 

t  See  Maclaine's  Hist.  vol.  vi.  p.  23,  and  bishop  Warburton's  Doctrine  of 
Grace,  quoted  by  him. 

\  Baruel's  Hist,  du  Jacobinlsme,  torn.  iv.  p.  118. 

S  Baruel's  Hist,  du  Jacobinisme,  torn.  iv.  p.  118.  ^  ^ 

I  Since  the  above  letter  was  written,  another  sect,  the  Joannites,  or  disci- 
ples of  Joanna  Southcote,  have  risen  to  notice  by  their  number  and  the  sii>- 
gularity  of  their  tenets.  This  female  apostle  has  been  led  by  her  spirit  to  be- 
Jieve  herself  to  be  the  woman  of  Genesis,  destined  to  crush  the  head  of  the  in- 
fernal serpent,  with  whom  she  supposes  herself  to  have  bad  daily  battles,  to 
the  effusion  of  his  blood.     She  believes  herself  to  be,  likewise,  the  woman  of 

D 


26  Letter  VL 

I  am  sorry  to  be  obliged  to  enter  upon  the  same  list  with 
these  enthusiasts,  a  numerous  class,  many  of  them  very  respect- 
able, of  modern  religionists,  called  Methodists:  yet,  since  their 
avowed  system  of  faith  is,  that  this  consists  in  an  ijistantaneous 
illapse  of  God's  spirit  into  the  souls  of  certain  persons^  by  which 
they  are  convinced  of  their  justification  and  salvation^  without 
reference  to  Scripture  or  any  thing  else,  they  cannot  be  placed, 
as  to  their  rule  of  faith,  under  any  other  denomination.  This, 
according  to  the  founder's  doctrine,  is  the  07ily  article  of  faith  : 
all  other  articles  he  terms  opinions^  of  which  he  says,  "the  Me- 
thodists do  not  lay  any  stress  on  them,  whether  right  or  wrong. ""=^ 
He  continues :  "  I  am  sick  of  opinions ;  I  am  weary  to  bear  them  ; 
my  soul  loaths  this  frothy  food."f  Conformably  to  this  latitu- 
dinarian  system,  Wesley  opens  heaven  indiscriminately  to 
churchmen,  Presbyterians,  Independents,  Quakers,  and  even 
to  Catholics.il  Addressing  the  last  named,  he  exclaims,  "  O 
that  God  would  write  in  your  hearts  the  rules  of  self-denial  and 
love  laid  down  by  Thomas  a  Kempis ;  or  that  you  would  fol- 
low in  this  and  in  good  works,  the  burning  and  shining  light  of 
your  own  church,  the  marquis  of  Renty.:}:  Then  would  all  who 
know  and  love  the  truth,  rejoice  to  acknowledge  you  as  the 
church  of  the  living  God."§ 

At  the  first  rise  of  Methodism  in  Oxford,  A.  D.  1729,  John 
Wesley  and  his  companions  were  plain,  serious  church  of  Eng- 
land men,  assiduous  and  methodical  in  praying,  reading,  fasting, 
and  the  like.  Wliatthey  practised  themselves,  the^^  preached 
to  others  both  in  England  and  America,  till  becoming  intimate 
with  the  Moravian  brethren,  and  particularly  with  Peter  Boh- 


the  Revelations  crowned  with  twelve  stars,  which  are  so  many  minlstei's  of  the 
established  church.  In  fact,  one  of  these,  a  richly  beneficed  rector,  and  of  u 
noble  family,  acts  as  her  secretary,  in  writing-  and  sealing-  passports  to  heaven, 
which  she  supposes  herself  authoi'ized  to  issue,  to  the  number  of  144,000,  at 
a  very  moderate  price.  One  of  these  passports,  in  due  form,  is  in  the  writer* 

f)ossession.  It  is  sealed  with  three  seals.  The  first  exhibits  two  stars,  name- 
y,  the  morning-  star,  to  represent  Christ,  the  evening-  star,  to  represent  her- 
self. The  second  seal  exhibits  the  lion  of  Juda,  supposed  to  allude  to  the  in- 
sane prophet,  Richard  Brothers.  The  third  shows  the  face  of  Joanna  hi-rself. 
Of  lute,  her  inspiration  has  taken  a  new  turn  :  she  believes  herself  to  be  preg- 
nant of  the  Messiah,  and  her  followers  have  prepared  silver  vessels  of  various 
•ortB  for  h's  use,  when  he  is  born. 

•  Wesley's  Appeal,  P.  III.  p.  134.  •"  t  Il*»d.  p.  135. 
(I  Wesley's  Appeai. 

♦  His  life  written  in  French,  by  Pere  St.  Jure,  a  Jesuit,  and  abridged  in 
Eng-lish  by  J.  Wesley. 

%  In  his  "  Popery  Calmly  Considered,*'  p.  20,  Wesley  writes:  '*  I  firmly  be- 
lieve that  many  members  of  the  church  of  Rome  have  been  holy  men,  and 
that  many  of  them  are  so  now."  He  elsewhere  says,  •'  Several  of  tliem  (Pa- 
pists) have  attained  to  as  liigh  a  pitch  of  sanctity  as  human  nature  ik  capable 
of  arriving  at." 


Letter  VI,  27 

ler,  one  of  their  elders,  John  Wesley,  "  became  convinced  of 
unbelief,  namely,  a  wa?it  of  that  faith  whereby  alone  we  are 
saved,^^*  Speaking  of  his  past  life  and  ministry,  he  says,  "  I 
was  fundamentally  a  Papist,  and  knew  it  not."f  Soon  after 
this  persuasion,  namely,  on  May  24,  1739,  "  Going  into  a  socie- 
ty in  Aldersgate  street,"  he  says,  "  whilst  a  person  was  reading 
Luther's  Preface  to  the  Romans,  about  a  quarter  before  nine,  I 
felt  my  heart  strangely  warmed  :  I  felt  I  did  trust  in  Christ,  in 
Christ  alone  for  salvation,  and  an  assurance  xuas  given  me  that 
he  had  taken  axvay  my  sins,  even  mine,  and  saved  me  from  the 
law  of  sin  and  death,'''' \  ^ 

What  were  now  the  unavoidable  consequences  of  a  diffusion 
of  this  doctrine  among  the  people  at  large  ?  Let  us  hear  them 
from  Wesley's  most  able  disciple  and  destined  successor, 
Fletcher,  of  Madeley.  "  Antinomian  principles  and  practices," 
he  says,  "  have  spread  like  wild-fire  among  our  societies.  Many 
persons,  speaking  in  the  most  glorious  manner  of  Christ  and 
their  interest  in  his  complete  salvation,  have  been  found  living 
in  the  greatest  immoralities. — How  few  of  our  societies,  where* 
cheating,  extorting,  or  some  other  evil  hath  not  broke  out,  and 
given  such  shakes  to  the  ark  of  the  Gospel,  that,  had  not  the 
Lord  interposed,  it  must  have  been  overset  !"§ — "  I  have  seen 
them  who  pass  for  believers,  follow  the  strain  of  corrupt  na- 
ture ;  and  when  they  should  have  exclaimed  against  Antino* 
mianism,  I  have  heard  them  cry  out  against  the  legality  of 
their  zvicked  hearts,  which  they  said,  stUl  suggested  that  they 
xvere  to  do  something  for  their  salvation,''^ — "  How  few  of  our 
celebrated  pulpits,  where  more  has  not  been  said  for  sin  than 
against  it  /"^ — The  same  candid  writer,  laying  open  the  foul* 
ness  of  his  former  system,  charges  Sir  Richard  Hill,  who  per- 
sisted in  it,  with  maintaining  that,  "  Even  adultery  and  mur- 
der do  not  hurt  the  pleasant  children,  but  rather  work  for  their 
good."**—-"  God  sees  no  sin  in  believers,  whatever  sin  they 

•  Whitehead's  life  of  John  and  Charles  Wesley,  vol.  ii.  p.  68. 

f  Journal,  A.  D.  1739.  Elsewhere,  Wesley  says,  "  O  vhat  a  work  has 
God  begun,  since  Peter  Bohler  came  to  England  ;  such  a  one  as  shall  never 
come  to  an  end,  till  heaven.and  earth  pass  away." 

i:  Vide  Whitehead,  vol.  ii.  page  79.  In  a  letter  to  his  brother  Samuel, 
John  Wesley  says,  <*  By  a  Christian,  I  mean  one  who  so  believes  in  Christ 
that  death  hath  no  dominion  over  him,  and  in  this  obvious  sense  of  the  word 
I  was  not  a  Christian  till  24th  of  May,  last  year."     Ibid.  105. 

§  Checks  to  Antinom.  vol.  ii.  p.  22,  ||  Ibid,  page  200. 

1  Ibid,  page  215. 

••  Fletcher's  Works,  vol.  iii.  page  SO.  Agfricola,  one  of  Luther's  first 
disciples,  is  called  the  founder  of  the  Antinomians,  These  hold  that  the 
faithful  are  bound  by  no  law,  either  of  God  or  man,  and  that  good  works  of 
every  kind  are  useless  to  salvation ;  while  Amsdorf,  Luther's  pot-oompanion» 
tAUjjbt  that  they  we  an  impediment  to  salvation.    MosUeira's  ^^celes,  Hi«t, 


28  Letter  VI. 

commit.  My  sins  might  displease  God ;  my  person  is  always 
acceptable  to  him.  Though  I  should  outsin  Manasses,  I  should 
not  be  less  a  pleasant  child,  because  God  always  views  me  in 
Christ.  Hence,  in  the  midst  of  adulteries,  murders  and  in- 
cests, he  can  address  me  with,  Thou  art  all  fair  my  love^  my 
undejiled^  there  is  no  spot  in  thee.^^^ — "  It  is  a  most  perni- 
cious error  of  the  schoolmen  to  distinguish  sins  Jtccording  to 
the  fact ^  and  not  according  to  the  person.^'' — "  Though  I  blame 
those  who  say.  Let  us  sin  that  grace  may  abound.^  yet  adultery, 
incest,  and  murd*r,  shall,  upon  the  whole,  make  me  holier  on 
".arth.,  and  merrier  in  hcaven,^^j 

These  doctrines  ?ind  practices,  casting  great  disgrace  on  Me- 
thodism, alarmed  its  founder.  He  therefore  held  a  synod  of 
his  chief  preachers,  undtr  the  title  of  a  Conference^  in  which 
he  and  they  unanimously  abandoned  their  past  fundamental 
principles^  in  the  following  confession  which  they  made. — 
"  ^lest,  17.  Have  we  not  unawares,  leaned  too  much  to  Gal- 
vanism ?  Ans.  We  are  afraid  we  have,  ^est,  18.  Have  we 
not  also  leaned  too  niuch  to  Antinomianism  ?  Ans,  We  are 
afraid  we  hr.ve.  ^jiest,  20.  What  are  the  main  pillars  of  it  ? 
Ans.  I.  That  Christ  abolished  the  moral  law:  2.  That  Chris- 
tians therefore  are  not  obliged  to  observe  it :  3.  That  one 
branch  of  Christian  liberty,  is  liberty  from  observing  the  com- 
mandments of  Gcd,"  hc.\  The  publication  of  this  retraction, 
m  1770,  raised  the  indignation  of  the  more  rigid  Methodists, 
namely,  the  Whitefieldites,  Jumpers,  &c.  all  of  "vj^honi  were 
under  the  particular  patronage  of  lady  Huntingdon  :  according- 
ly her  chaplain,  the  Hon,  and  Rev.  Walter  Shirley,  issued  a 
•circular  letter  by  her  direction,  calling  a  general  meeting  of  her 
connexion,  as  it  is  called,  at  Bristol,  to  censure  this  "  dreadful 
heresy ^''^  which,  as  Shirley  affirmed,  "  injured  the  very  funda- 
mentals of  Christir.nity."§ 

Having  exhibited  this  imperfect  sketch  of  the  errors,  con- 
tradictioiis,  absurdities,  impie'iies,  and  immoralities,  into  which 
numberless  Christians,  most  of  them,  no  doubt,  sincere  in  their 
belief,  have  fallen,  by  pursuing  phantoms  of  thsir  imagination 
for  divine  illuminations,  and  adopting  a  supposed  immediate  . 
and  personal  revelation  as  the  rule  of  their  faith  and  conduct^  I 
would  request  any  one  of  your  respectable  society,  who  may, 

by  Maclaine,  vol.  iv.  p.  35.  p.  328.  Eaton,  a  Puritan,  in  his  Honeycomb  of 
Justification,  says:  *•  Ilelicvers  ouf^ht  not  to  mourn  for  sin,  because  it  wa* 
pardoned  bctfore  it  was  commitled.** 

•  Fletcher,  vol.  iv.  p.  97. 

\  Quoted  by  Fletcher.     See  also  Daubeny's  Guide  to  the  Church,  p.  82. 

t  Apud  Whitehead,  p,  213.     Benson's  Apology,  p.  208. 

%  Fletcher's  V/orks,  vol.  ii.  p.  5,  Whitehead.  Nightingale's  Portrait  of 
Methodism,  p.  463. 


Letter  VII.  29 

still  adhere  to  it,  to  reconsider  the  self-evident  maxim  laid 
down  in  the  beginning  of  this  letter  ;  namely,  that  cannot  be  the 
rule  of  faith  and  conduct  which  is  liable  to  lead  vs^  and  has  led 
very  many  well  meaning  persons  into  error  and  impiety  \  I  would 
remind  him  of  his  frequent  mistakes  and  illusions  respecting 
things  of  a  temporary  nature  ;  then,  painting  to  his  mind  the 
all-importance  of  ETERNITY,  that  is  of  happiness  or  misery 
inconceivable  and  everlasting,  I  would  address  him  in  the 
words  of  St.  Augustine,  "  What  is  it  you  are  trusting  to,  poor, 
weak  soul,  and  blinded  with  the  mists  of  the  flesh :  what  is  it 
you  are  trusting  to  ? 

J.  M. 


LETTER  VII. 

TO  JAMES  BROWN,  Esq,  ^c. 
OBJECTIONS  ANSWERED. 
Dear  Sir, 

I  HAVE  just  received  a  letter  from  Friend  Rankin,  of  Wen- 
lock,  written  much  in  the  style  of  George  Fox,  and  another  from 
Mr.  Ebenezer  Topham,  of  Brozeley.  They  both  consist  of 
objections  to  my  last  letter  to  you,  which  they  had  perused  at 
New  Cottage ;  and  the  writers  or  tnem  both  request  that  I 
would  address  whatever  answer  I  might  give  them,  to  your 
villa. 

Friend  Rankin  is  sententious,  yet  civil.  He  asks,  first, 
Whether  "  Friends  at  this  day  and  in  past  times,  and  even  the 
faithful  servant  of  Christ,  George  Fox,  have  not  condemned  the 
vain  imaginations  of  James  Naylor,  Thomas  Bushel,  John  Pe- 
rot, and  the  sinful  doings  of  many  others,  through  whom  the 
word  of  life  was  blasphemed  in  their  day  among  the  ungodly  ?" 
He  asks,  secondly,  "Whether  numberless  follies,  blasphe- 
mies, and  crimes,  have  not  risen  up  in  the  Roman  Catholic 
as  well  as  in  other  churches  V  He  asks,  thirdly.  Whether 
the  "learned  Robert  Barclay  in  his  glorious  Apolog}',  hath 
not  shown  forth,  that  the  testimony  oj  the  spirit  is  that  alone  by 
•which  the  true  knowledge  of  God^  hath  been^  is^  and  can  be  reveal- 
ed and  confirmed  ;  and  this  not  only  by  the  outward  testimony 


so  Letter  VII. 

of  Scripture,  but  also  by  that  of  TertuUian,  Hierom,  Augustin, 
Gregory  the  Great,  Bernard,  yea  also  by  Thomas  a  Kempis,  F. 
Pacificus  Baker,*  and  many  others  of  the  Popish  communion, 
who,  says  Robert  Barclay,  have  known  and  tasted  the  love  of 
God,  and  felt  the  power  and  virtue  of  God's  spirit  working 
within  them  for  their  salvation  ?"f 

I  will  first  consider  the  arguments  of  Friend  Rankin.  I  grant 
him,  then,  that  his  founder,  George  Fox,  does  blame  certain 
extravagancies  of  Naylor,  Perot,  and  others,  his  followers,  at 
the  same  time  that  he  boasts  of  several  committed  by  himself, 
by  Simpson,  and  others. :|:  But  how  does  he  confute  them,  and 
guard  others  against  them  ?  Why,  he  calls  their  authors  ra?iters^ 
and  charges  them  with  running-  out!^  Now  what  kind  of  argu- 
ment is  this  in  the  mouth  of  G.  Fox  against  any  fanatic,  how- 
ever furious,  when  he  himself  has  taught  him,  that  he  is  to 
listen  to  the  .spirit  of  God  within  himself  in  preference  to  the 
authority  of  any  man  and  of  all  men^  and  even  of  the  Gospel? 
G.  Fox  was  not  more  strongly  moved  to  believe  that  he  was 
the  messenger  of  Christy  than  J.  Naylor  was  to  believe  that  he 
himself  was  Christ:  nor  had  he  a  firmer  conviction  that  the 
Lord  iorh?idt  hat'Xvorship^2i%  it  is  called,  out  of  prayer^  than  J. 
Perotll  and  his  company  had  that  they  were  forbidden  to  use  it 
in  prayer,^  Secondly,  with  respect  to  the  excesses  and  crimes 
committed  by  many  Catholics,  of  different  ranks,  as  well  as  by 
other  men,  in  all  ages,  I  answer,  that  these  have  been  committed, 
not  in  virtue  of  their  rule  of  faith  and  conduct^  but  yz  direct  op- 
position to  ity  as  will  be  more  fully  seen,  when  we  come  to  treat 
of  that  rule ;  whereas  the  extravagancies  of  the  Quakers  were 
the  immediate  dictates  of  the  imaginary  spirit  which  they  fol- 
lowed as  their  guide.  Lastly,  when  the  doctors  of  the  Catholic 
church  teach  us,  after  the  inspired  writers,  not  to  extinguish^ 
but  to  walk  in  the  spirit  of  God,  they  tell  us,  at  the  same  time, 

•  An  Eng-lish  Benedictine  Monk,  author  of  Sanda  Sophia^  which  is  quot- 
ed at  lenj^h  by  Barclay. 

f  Apolog-y,  p.  351, 

i  See  Journal  of  G.  Fox,  passim. 

§  Speaking  of  James  Naylor,  he  says,  "I  spake  with  him,  for  I  saw  he  wa.'f 
9ut  and  wrong;  he  slighted  what  I  said,  and  was  dark  and  much  out."  Journ. 
p.   220, 

8  Journ.  310.  This  and  another  friend,  John  Love,  went  on  a  mission  to 
Rome,  to  convert  the  Pope  to  Quakerism ;  but  his  H(*ness  not  understanding" 
EngUsh,  when  they  addressed  him  with  some  course  Enghsh  epithets  in  St. 
Peters  church,  they  had  no  better  success  than  a  female  friend,  Mary  Fisher, 
had,  who  went  into  Greece  to  convert  the  Great  Turk.    See  Scwel's  Hist. 

'i  **Now  he  (Fox)  found  also  that  the  Lord  forbade  him  to  put  off  his  hut 
to  any  men  either  high  or  low  ;  and  he  required  to  7Viou  and  Thee  every  man 
and  woman,  without  distinction,  and  not  to  bid  people  Good  morrow^  or  Good 
evening;  neither  might  he  bow,  or  scrape  with  his  leg-'*  Seweli's  Hist.  p. 
18.  See  there  a  Dissertation  on  llat-wi/rship. 


Letter  VII.  St 

that  this  holy  spirit  invariably  and  necessarily  leads  us  to  hear 
the  church,  and  to  practise  that  humility,  obedience,  and  those 
other  virtues,  which  she  constantly  inculcates:  so  that,  if  it 
were  possible  for  anang-cl  from  heaven  to  preach  another  Gospel 
than  what  we  have  recieved^  he  ought  to  be  rejected,  as  a  spirit 
of  dark7iess.  Even  Luther,  when  the  Anabaptists  first  broached 
many  of  the  leading  tenets  of  the  Quakers,  required  them  to 
demonstrate  their  pretended  commission  from  God,  by  incon- 
testable miracles,*  or  submit  to  be  guided  by  his  appointed  mi- 
nisters. 

I  have  now  to  notice  the  letter  of  Mr.  Topham.f  Some  of 
his  objections  have  already  been  answered,  in  my  remarks  on 
Mr.  Rankin's  letter.  What  I  find  particular,  in  the  former,  is 
the  following  passage :  *'  Is  it  possible  to  go  against  conviction 
and  facts?  namely,  the  experience  that  ver)^  many  serious  Chris- 
tians feel,  in  this  day  of  God'^s  power^  that  they  are  made  par- 
takers of  Christ  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost?  Of  very  many  that 
hear  him  saying  to  the  melting  heart,  with  his  still,  small,  yet 
penetrating  and  renovating  voice.  Thy  sins  are  forgiven  thee : 
oe  thou  clean:  thy  faith  hath  made  thee  whole  P  If  an  exterior 
proof  were  wanting,  to  show  the  certainty  of  this  interior  con- 
viction, I  might  refer  to  the  conversion  and  holy  life  of  those 
who  have  experienced  it." — ^To  this  I  answer,  that  the  facts 
and  the  conviction  which  your  friend  talks  of,  amount  to  noth- 
ing more  than  a  certain  strength  of  imagination  and  warmth  of 
sentiment,  which  may  be  natural,  or  may  be  produced  by  that 
lying  spirit,  whom  God  permits  sometimes  to  go  forth,  and  to 
persuade  the  presumptuous  to  their  destruction.  1  Kings  xxii. 
22.  I  presume  Mr.  Topham  will  allow,  that  no  experience  he 
has  felt  or  witnessed  exceeds  that  of  Bockhold,  or  Hacket,  or 
Naylor,  mentioned  above,  who,  nevertheless,  were  confessedly 
betrayed  by  it  into  most  horrible  blasphemies  and  attrocious 
crimes.  The  virtue  most  necessary  for  enthusiasts,  because  the 
most  remote  from  them,  is  an  humble  diffidence  in  themselves. 
When  Oliver  Cromwell  was  on  his  death-bed,  Dr  Godwin  be- 
ing present,  among  other  ministers,  prophesied  that  the  Pro- 
tector would  recover :  death,  however,  almost  immediately  en- 
suing, the  Puritan,  instead  of  acknowledging  his  error,  cast  the  i 
blame  upon  Almighty  God,  exclaiming,  "Lord,  thou  hast  de- 
ceived us  and  we  have  been  deceived  !":j:    With  respect  to  the 

•  Sleidan. 

f  It  was  originally  Intended  to  insert  these  and  the  other  letters  of  the  san»e 
description  :  but  as  this  would  have  rendered  the  work  too  bulky,  and  as  the 
whole  of  the  objections  may  be  gathered  from  the  answers  to  tliem,  tliat  inten- 
tion has  been  abandoned. 

♦  See  Bii-ch's  Life  of  Archbishop  Tillotson,  p.  17. 


35  Letter   VIII. 

alleged  purity  of  Antinomian  saints,  I  would  refer  to  the  his- 
tory of  the  lives  and  deaths  of  many  of  our  English  regicides, 
/-and  to  the  gross  immoralities  of  numberless  Just'ijied  Metho- 
dists^ described  by  Fletcher,  in  his  Checks  to  Antinomianism,* 

I  am,  &c. 

J.  M. 


LETTER  VIII. 

To  JAMES  BROWN,  Esq, 
SECOND  FALLACIOUS  RULE. 

Dear  Sir, 

I  TAKE  it  for  granted,  that  my  answers  to  Messrs*  Ran- 
kin and  Topham  have  been  communicated  to  you,  and  I  hope 
that  they,  in  conjunction  with  my  preceding  letters,  have  con- 
vinced those  gentlemen,  of  what  you,  dear  sir,  have  all  along, 
been  convinced,  namely,  of  the  inconsistency  and  fanaticism  of 
every  pretension  on  the  part  of  individuals,  now-a-days,  to  a 
new  and  particular  inspiration,  as  a  rule  of  faith.  The  ques- 
tion which  remains  for  our  inquiry  is,  whether  the  rule  or  me- 
thod prescribed  by  the  church  of  England  and  other  more 
rational  classes  of  Protestants,  or  that  prescribed  by  the  Catho- 
lic church,  is  the  one  designed  by  our  Saviour  Christ  for  find- 
ing out  his  true  religion.  You  say  that  the  whole  of  this  is 
comprised  in  the  -written  -word  of  God^  or  the  Bible,  and  that 
erven/  individual  is  a  judge  for  himself  of  the  sense  of  the  Bible. 
Hence,  in  every  religious  controversy,  more  especially  since 
the  last  change  of  the  inconstant  Chillingworth,f  Catholics  have 

•  This  candid  and  able  writer  says,  "  The  Puritans  and  first  Quakers  soon 
got  over  the  edge  of  internal  activity  into  the  smooth  aixd  easy  path  of  Laodi- 
cean formality.  Most  of  us,  called  Methodists,  have  already  followed  them. 
We  fall  asleep  under  the  bewitching  power ;  we  dream^trang-e  dreams ;  our 
salvation  is  finished ;  we  have  got  above  legality;  we  have  attained  Christian  li- 
.:berty;  we  have  nothing  to  do;  our  covenant  is  sure."  Vol.  ii.  p.  233,  Hese- 
fci-3  to  several  instances  of  the  most  flagitious  conduct  which  human  nature  is 
Capable  of,  in  persons  who  had  attained  to  what  they  call  finished  salvation. 

\  Chillingworth  was  first  a  Protestant,  of  the  establishment :  he  next  be- 
came a  Catholic,  and  studied  in  one  of  our  seminaries.  He  tben  returned,  in 
part,  to  his  former  creed :  and  last  of  all,  he  gave  into  Socinianlsra,  which  hi« 
wiitings  greatly  promoted. 


Letter  VIII.  53 

been  stunned  with  the  cries  of  jarring  Protestant  sects  and  in- 
dividuals, proclaiming  that,  the  Bible,  the  Bible  alone  is  their  re- 
ligion: and  hence,  more  particularly  at  the  present  day,  Bibles 
are  distributed  by  hundreds  of  thousands,  throughout  the  em- 
pire and  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe,  as  the  adequate  means 
appointed  by  Christ,  of  uniting  and  reforming  Christians  and  of 
converting  Infidels.  On  the  other  hand,  we  Catholics  hold  that 
the  Word  of  God  in  general  both  -written  and  univritten,  in  other 
words,  the  Bible  and  tradition,  taken  together,  constitute  the  rule 
of  faith  or  method  for  finding  out  the  true  religion:  and  that,  be- 
sides the  rule  itself,  he  has  provided  in  his  holy  church,  a  livings 
speaking  judge  to  ivatch  over  it  and  explain  it  in  all  matters  of 
controversy.  That  the  latter,  and  not  the  former,  is  the  true  rule^ 
I  trust  I  shall  be  able  to  prove  as  clearly  as  I  h  ivc  proved  that 
private  inspiration  docs  not  constitute  it :  and  this  I  shall  prove 
bv^  means  of  the  two  maxims  I  have,  on  that  occasion,  made 
use  of;  namely,  the  rule  of  faith,  appointed  by  Christ  must  be 
CERTAIN  and  UNERRING,  that  is  to  say,  it  must  be  one 
7uhich  is  not  liable  to  lead  any  rational  and  sincere  inquirer  into 
inconsiste7icy  or  error:  secondly,  this  rule  must  be  UNIVER- 
SAL ;  that  is  to  say,  it  must  be  proportioned  to  the  abilities  and 
circumstances  of  the  great  bulk  of  mankind, 

I.  If  Christ  had  intended  that  all  mankind  should  learn  his 
religion  from  a  book,  namely,  Th?  New  Testament,  he  himself 
would  have  written  that  book,  and  would  have  laid  it  down,  as 
the  first  and  fundamental  precept  of  his  religion,  the  obligation 
of  learning  to  read  it ;  whereas,  he  never  wrote  any  thing  at  all, 
unless  perhaps  the  sins  of  the  Pharisees  with  his  finger  upon 
the  dust,  John  viii.  6.^  It  does  not  even  appear  that  he  gave 
his  apostles  any  command  to  write  the  Gospels;  though  he  re- 
peatedly and  emphatically  commanded  them  to  preach  it,  {Matt, 
X.)  and  that  to  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  Matt,  xxviii.  19. — 
In  this  ministry  they  all  of  them  spent  their  lives,  preaching  the 
religion  of  Christ  in  every  country,  from  Judea  to  Spain,  in  one 
direction,  and  to  India  in  another ;  every  where  establishing 
churches,  and  commending  their  doctrine  to  faithful  men  who 
should  be  ft  to  teach  others  also,  2.  Tim.  ii.  2.  Only  a  part  of 
them  wrote  any  thing,  and  what  these  did  write  was,  for  the 
most  part,  addressed  to  particular  persons  or  congregations, 
and  on  particular  occasions.  The  ancient  fathers  tell  us  that 
St.  Matthew  wrote  his  Gospel  at  the  particular  request  of  the 
Christians  of  Palestine,!  and  that  St.  Mark  composed  his  at  the 

•  It  is  agreed  upon  among-  the  learned,  that  the  supposed  letter  of  Christ  to 
Abgarus,  king  of  Edessa,  quoted  by  Eusebius,-Hist.  Eccl.  1.  1.  is  spurious. 

t  Kuseb.  1.  3.  Hist.  Eccl.  Chrysos.  in  Mat.  Horn.  1.  Ircn.  1.  3.  c.  1.  Hieron. 
de  Vir.  Ulust. 


34   .  Letter  VIIL 

desire  of  those  at  Rome.*  St.  Luke  addressed  his  Gospel  to 
an  indiyidual,  Theophilus,  having  written  it,  says  the  holy  ^ydLXi- 
gtlistyhtc^nst  it  seemed  g-ood  to  him  to  do  so,  Luke  i.  3,  St.  John 
wrote  the  last  of  the  Gospels  in  compliance  with  the  petition  of 
the  clergy  and  people  of  Lesser  Asia,f  to  prove,  in  particular,  the 
divinity  of  Jesus  Christ,  which  Cerinthus,  Ebion,  and  other 
heretics  began  then  to  deny.  No  doubt  the  evangelists  were 
moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost  to  listen  to  the  requests  of  the  faith- 
ful in  writing  their  respective  Gospels ;  nevertheless,  there  is 
nothing  in  these  occasions,  nor  in  the  Gospels  themsL^lves,  which 
indicates  that  any  one  of  them,  or  all  of  them  together,  contain 
an  entire,  detailed,  and  clear  exposition  of  the  whole  religion  of 
Jesus  Christ.  The  canonical  Epistles  in  the  New  Testament, 
show  the  particular  occasions  on  which  they  were  written,  and 
prove,  as  the  bishop  of  Lincoln  observes,  that  "they  are  not  to 
be  considered  as  regular  treatises  on  the  Christian  Religion.":): 

II.  In  supposing  our  Saviour  to  have  appointed  his  bare  writ- 
ten word  for  the  rule  of  our  faith,  without  any  authorized  judge 
to  decide  on  the  unavoidable  controversies  growing  out  of  it, 
you  would  suppose  that  he  has  acted  differently  from  what  com- 
mon sense  has  dictated  to  all  other  legislators.  For  where  do 
we  read  of  a  legislator,  who,  after  dictating  a  code  of  laws,  ne- 
glected to  appoint  judges  and  magistrates  to  decide  their  mean- 
ing, and  to  enforce  obedience  to  such  decisions?  You,  dear 
sir,  have  the  means  of  knowing  what  would  be  the  consequence 
of  leaving  any  act  of  parliament,  concerning  taxes,  oi;  in  closures, 
or  any  other  temporal  concerns,  to  the  interpretation  of  the  in- 
dividuals whom  it  regards.  Alluding  to  the  Protestant  rule, 
the  illustrious  Fenelon  has  said,  "  It  is  better  to  live  without 
any  law,  than  to  have  laws  which  all  men  are  left  to  interpret 
according  to  their  several  opinions  and  interests."^  The  bi- 
shop of  London  appears  sensible  of  this  truth,  as  far  as  regards 
temporal  affairs,  where  he  writes,  "In  matters  of  property  in- 
deed, some  decision,  right  or  wrong,  must  be  made :  society 
could  not  subsist  without  it:"I|  just  as  if  peace  and  unity  were 
less  necessary  in  the  one  sheepfold  of  the  one  shepherd^  the 
church  of  Christ,  than  they  are  in  civil  society ! 

III.  The  fact  is,  this  method  of  determining  religious  ques- 
tions by  Scripture  only,  according  to  each  individual's  interpre- 
tation, whenever  and  wherever  it  has  beenqtlopted,  has  always 
produced  endless  and  incuraMe  dissentions,  and  of  course  er- 
rors ;  because  truth  is  one,  while  errors  are  numberless.     The 

•  Euseb.  1.  2.  c.  15.  Hist.  Kiel.  Kpiph.  Hieron.  de  Vlr.  Illust . 

fEuseb.  1.  6.  Hist.  F.(<1.  Ilieion. 

%  Ekm.  of  Christ.  Rel.  vol.  i.  p.  277, 

S  Life  of  Arcbbp.  Fenelon,  by  Rumscy  \  Brief  Confut.  p.  18. 


Letter  nil  35 

ancient  fathers  of  the  church  reproached  the  sects  of  heretics 
and  schismatics  with  their  endless  internal  divisions;  "See" 
says  St.  Augustine,  "into  how  many  morsels  those  are  divided 
who  have  divided  themselves  from  the  unity  of  the  church!"* 
Another  father  writes,  "  It  is  natural  for  error  to  be  ever 
changing.!  The  disciples  have  the  same  right  in  this  matter 
that  their  masters  had." 

To  speak  now  of  the  Protestant  reformers.  No  sooner  had 
their  progenitor,  Martin  Luther,  set  up  the  tribunal  of  his  pri- 
vate judgment  on  the  sense  of  Scripture,  in  opposition  to  the 
Authority  of  the  church,  ancient  and  modem,:j:  than  his  disci- 
ples, proceeding  on  his  principle,  undertook  to  prove,  from 
plain  texts  of  the  Bible,  that  his  own  doctrine  was  erroneous, 
and  that  the  Reformation  itself  wanted  reforming.  Carlostad,§ 
Zuinglius,||  Q^colompadius,  Muncer,^!  and  a  hundred  more  of 
his  followers  wrote  and  preached  against  him  arjd  against  each 
other,  with  the  utmost  virulence,  still  each  of  them  professing 
to  ground  his  doctrine  and  conduct  on  the  written  word  of  God 
alone.  In  vain  did  Luther  claim  a  superiority  over  them ;  in 
vain  did  he  denounce  hell-fire  against  them  ;**  in  vain  did  he 
threaten  to  return  back  to  the  Catholic  religion  :|f  he  had  put  the 
Bible  into  each  man's  hand  to  explain  it  for  himself:  this  his 
followers  continued  to  do  in  open  defiance  of  him  ;l^  till  their 
mutual  contradictions  and  discords  became  so  numerous  aud 


•St.  Aug.  '  ""^-     f  Tertul.  de  Pracscrip. 

t  This  happened  in  June,  15C0,  on  his  doctrine  being"  censured  by  the 
Pope.     Till  this  time,  he  had  submitted  it' to  the  judgment  of  the  Holy  Seel 

i  He  was  Luther's  first  disciple  of  distinction,  being  archdeacon  of  Wit- 
temberg.     He  declared  against  Luther  in  1521. 

H  Zuinglius  began  the  reformation  in  Switzerland,  sometime  after  Luther 
began  it  in  Germany;  but  t.iught  such  doctrine,  that  the  latter  termed  him  a 
pagaii,  and  said,  he  despaired  of  his  salvation. 

^  He  was  the  disciple  pf  Luther,  and  founder  of  the  Ai^jbaptists,  who,  in 
quality  of  the  just,  maintained  that  the  property  of  Me  tmcA:cc?  belonged  to  them, 
quoting  the  second  beatitude:  blessed  are  the  meek  for  they  shall  possess  the  land. 
Muncer  wrote  to  the  several  princes  of  Germany,  to  give  up  their  possessions 
to  him;  and,  at  the  head  of  forty  thousand  of  liis  followers,  marched  to  enforce 
tliis  requisition. 

•*  He  says  to  them,  *•  I  can  defend  you  against  the  Pope — ^but  when  tb« 
devil  shall  urge  against  you  (the  heads  of  these  changes)  at  your  death,  these 
passages  of  Scripture,  they  ran  and  I  did  not  send  th^m,  how  shall  you  with- 
stand liim  !  He  will  plunge  you  headlong  into  hell.** — Oper.  torn.  vii.  fol. 
274. 

ft  "If  you  continue  in  these  measures  of  your  common  deliberations,  I  will 
recant' whatever  1  have  written  or  said,  and  leave  you.  Mind  what  I  say.** — 
Oper.  torn.  vii.  fol.  276.  edit.  Wittemb. 

tt  See  the  curious  challenge  of  Luther  to  Carlostadto  write  a  book  against 
the  real  presence,  wlien  one  wishes  the  otiierto  break  his  neck,  and  the  othesr 
retorts,  niay  I  see  thee  broken  on  the  wheel.— YixisLt.  b.  ii.  n.  l2. 


36  Letter  VIII. 

scandalous,  as  to  overwhelm  the  thinking  part  of  them  with  giief 
and  confusion.^^ 

To  point  out  some  few  of  the  particular  variations  alluded  to  ; 
for  to  enumerate  them  all,  would  require  a  work  vastly  more 
voluminous  than  that  of  Bossuet  on  this  subject:  it  is  well 
known  that  Luther's  fundamental  principle  was  that  of  imputed 
justice^  to  the  exclusion  of  all  acts  of  virtue  and  good  works 
whatsoever.  His  favourite  disciple  and  bottle-companion,  Ams- 
dorf,  carried  this  principle  so  far  as  to  maintain  that  good  works 
are  a  hinder ance  to  salvation,^  In  vindication  of  his  fundamen- 
tal tenet,  Luther  vaunts  as  follows :  This  article  shall  remain, 
in  spite  of  all  the  world :  it  is  I,  Martin  Luther,  evangelist, 
who  say  it :  let  no  one  therefore  attempt  to  infringe  it,  neither 
the  emperor  of  the  Romans,  nor  of  the  Turks,  nor  of  the  Tar- 
tars ;  neither  the  Pope,  nor  the  monks,  nor  the  nuns,  nor  the 
kings,  nor  the  princes,  nor  all  the  devils  in  hell.  If  they  attempt 
it,  may  the  infernal  flames  be  their  recompense.  What  I  say 
here  is  to  be  taken  for  an  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Ghost.":j: — 
Notwithstanding,  however,  these  terrible  threats  and  impreca- 
tions of  their  master,  Melancthon,  with  the  rest  of  the  Luther- 
ans, immediately  after  his  death,  abandoned  this  article,  and 
went  over  to  the  opposite  extreme  of  Semipelagianism  ;  name- 
ly, they  not  only  admitted  the  necessity  of  good  works,  but  they 
also  taught  that  these  are  prior  to  God^s  grace.  Still  on  this 
single  subject,  Oslander,  a  Lutheran,  says,  "  there  are  twenty 
3everal  opinions,  all  drac^nfrom  the  Scripture,  and  l^eld  by  dif- 
ferent members  of  the  Augsbwrg,  or  Lutheran  Confession."^ 
,  Nor  has  the  unbounded  license  of  explaining  Scripture^ 
each  one  in  his  own  way,  which  Protestants  claim,  been  con- 
fined to  mere  errors  and  dissensions  ;  it  has  also  caused  mu- 
tual persecution  and  bloodshed  ;!|  it  has  produced  tumults,  re- 

•  Capito,  minister  of  Strasburg,  writing  to  Parel,  pastor  of  Geneva,  thus 
complains  to  h\^:  "  God  has  given  me  to  understand  the  mischief  we  have 
done,  by  our  precipitancy  iu  breaking  with  the  pope,  &c.  The  people  sav 
to  us,  I  know  enough  of  the  Gospel:  I  can  read  it  for  myself.  I  have  no  need 
of  you."  Inter  Epist.  Calvini.  In  the  same  tone,  Dudlth  writes  to  his  friend 
Bcza,  **  Our  people  are  carried  away  with  every  wind  of  dortrine.  If  you  know 
what  their  rehgion  is  to-day,  you  cannot  tell  what  it  will  Lx^  to-morrow.  In 
what  single  point  are  those  churches  which  have  declared  war  against  the  pope 
agreed  among  themselves  ?  There  is  not  one  point  which  is  not  held  by  some 
of  them  as  an  article  of  faith,  and  by  others  as  an  impiety.*'  In  the  same  sen- 
timent, Calvin,  writing  to  Melancthon,  says,  "It  is  ot  great  importance  that 
the  divisions,  which  subsist  among  us,  should  not  be  known  to  future  ages: 
for  nothing  can  be  more  ridiculous  than  that  we,  who  have  broken  off  from  the 
whole  world,  should  have  agreed  so  ill  among  ourselves,  from  tlie  very  begin 
ning  of  the  Reformation." 

t  Mosheim  Hist,  by  Maclainc,  vol.  iv.  p.  328.  ed.  1790.     ^  Visit.  Saxon. 

§  Archdeacon  Blackburn's  Confessional,  p.  16. 

II  See  Letters  to  a  Prebendary,  chapter,  Persecution.  Numberless  other  proof* 
of  Protestants  persecuting,  not  only  Catholics,  but  also  their  fellow  Protestants,  t» 
death,  on  account  of  their  religious  opinions,  can  be  adduced. 


Letter  VIIL  37 

hellions,  and  anarchy,  beyond  recounting.      Dr.  Hey  asserts, 
that  "  The  misinterpretation  of  Scripture  brought  on  the  mise- 
ries of  the  civil  war  ;"*  and  lord  Clarendon,  Madox,  and  other 
writers,  show  that  there    was  not  a  crime    committed  by  the 
Puritan  rebels,  in  the  course  of  it,  which  they  did  not  profess  to 
justify  by  texts  and  instances  drawn  from  the  sacred  volumes.f 
i.eland,  Bergier,  Baruel,  Robison,  and  Kett,  abundantly  prove 
that  the  poisonous  plant  of  Infidelity,  which  has  produced  such 
dreadful  effects  of  late  years  on  the  continent,  was  transplanted 
thither  from  this  Protestant  island  ;  and  that  it  was  produced, 
nourished,  and  increased  to  its  enormous  growth  by  that  prin- 
ciple of  private  judgment  in  matters  of  religion,  which  is  the 
very  foundation  of  the  Reformation.     Let  us  hear  the  two  last 
mentioned  authors,  both  of  them  Protestant  clergymen,  en  this 
important  subject.     "  The  spirit  of  free  inquiry,"  says  Kett, 
quoting  Robinson,  "  was  the  great  boast  of  the  Protestants,  and 
their  only  support  against  the  Catholics  ;  securing  them,  both 
in  their  civil  and  religious  rights.     It   was,  therefore,   encou- 
raged by  their  governments,  and  sometimes  indulged  to  excess. 
In  the  progress  of  this  contest,  their  own  Confessions  did  not 
escape  censure  ;  and  it  was  asserted,  that  the  Reformation,  which 
these  confessions  express,  was  not  complete.     Further  reforma- 
tion was  proposed.  The  Scriptures,  the  foundation  of  their  faith, 
were  examined  by  Clergvmen  of  very  different  capacities,  dispo- 
sitions,  and  views,  till,  by  explaining,  correcting,  allegorizing, 
and  otherwise  twisting  the  Bible,  men's  minds  had  hardly  any 
thing  to  rest  on,  as  a  doctrine  of  revealed  religion.     This  en- 
couraged others  to  go  further,  and  to  say  that  revelation  was  a 
solecism,  as  plainly  appears  by  the  irreconcilable  differences 
among  the  enlightcners  of  the  public,  as  they  were  called;  and 
that  man  had  nothing  to  trust  to,  but  the  dictates   of  natural 
reason.     Another  set  of  writers,  proceeding  from  this,  as  from 
a  point  settled,  proscribed  all  religion  whatever,  and  openly 
taught  the  doctrines  of  Materialism  and  Atheism.     Most  of 
t/ie.h-e  innovations  were  the  ivork  of  Protestant  divines^  from  th 
causes  that  I  have  mentioned.     But  the  progress  of  Infideli 
was  much  accelerated  by  the  establishment  of  a  Philanthropi 
or  academy  of  general  education  in  the  principality  of  Anha 
Deffsau.     The  professed  object  of  this  institution  was  to  unit 
the  three  Christian  communions   of  Germany,  and  to  make  it 
possible  for  the  members  of  them  all  not  only  to  live  amicably, 
and  to  worship  God  in  the  same  church,  but  even  to  communi- 
cate together.     This  attempt  gave  rise  to  much  speculation  and 

•  Dr.  Hej-'s  Theological  Lectures,  vol.  i.  p.  77. 

I  Hist,  of  Civ.  War.  Examin.  of  Neal's  Hist.' of  Puritons. 


M  Letter   VIIL 

refinement ;  and  the  proposal  for  the  amendment  of  the  formu- 
las, and  the  instructions  from  the  pulpit,  were  prosecuted  with 
so  much  keenness,  that  the  ground-work  of  Christianity  was 
refined  and  refined,  till  it  vanished  altogether,  leaving  Deism, 
or  natural,  or,  as  it  was  called,  philosophical  religion^  in  its 
place.  The  Lutherans  and  Cahinists^  prepared  by  the  causes 
before  mentioned^  to  become  dupes  to  this  masterpiece  of  art, 
were  enticed  by  the  specious  liberality  of  the  scheme,  and  the 
particular  attention  which  it  promised  to  the  morals  of  youth : 
but  not  one  Roman  Catholic  could  Basedow  allure  to  his  semi- 
nary of  practical  ethics,''''^ 

IV.  You  have  seen,  dear  sir,  to  what  endless  errors  and  im- 
pieties, the  principle  of  private  interpretation  of  Scripture,  no 
less  than  that  of  private  inspiration  of  faith,  has  conducted  men, 
and,  of  course,  is  ever  liable  to  conduct  them  ;  which  circum- 
stance, therefore,  proves,  that  it  cannot  be  the  rule  for  bringing 
us  to  religious  truths,  according  to  the  self-evident  maxim 
stated  above.  Nor  is  it  to  be  imagined,  that,  previously  to  the 
formation  of  the  different  national  churches,  and  other  religious 
associations,  which  took  place  in  several  parts  of  Europe,  at 
what  is  called  "  The  Reformation,"  the  Scriptures  were  dili- 
gently consulted  by  the  founders  of  them,  and  that  the  ancient 
system  of  religion  was  exploded,  and  the  new  systems  adopted, 
conformably  with  their  apparent  sense,  as  Protestant  contro- 
vertists  would  have  you  believe.  No,  sir,  princes  and  states- 
men had  a  great  deal  more  to  do  with  these  changes,  than  theo- 
logians ;  and  most  of  the  parties  concerned  in  them  were  evi- 
dently pushed  on  by  very  different  motives  from  those  of  reli- 
gion. As  to  Martin  Luther,  he  testifies,  and  calls  God  to  wit- 
ness the  truth  of  his  testimony,  that  it  was  not  xuillinghj^  (that 
is,  not  from  a  previous  discovery  of  the  falsehood  of  his  reli- 
gion) but  from  accident^  (namely,  a  quarrel  with  the  Domini- 
can friars,  and  afterwards  with  the  Pope)  that  he  fell  into  his 
broils   about  religion.f     With    respect   to  the  Reformation   in 

•  Robison's  Proofs  of  a  Conspiracy  against  all  Religions,  &.c.  Kelt's  History 
the  Interpreter  of  prophecy,  Vol.  ii.  p.  158. 

f  Casu  non  voluntate  in  has  lurmas  incidi  :  Deumtcstor." — The  Protestant 
bistorian,  Moshciin,  with  whom  Hume  agrees,  admits  that  several  of  the  prin- 
cipal agents  in  this  revolution  •'  were  actuated  more  by  the  impulse  of  pagsions 
and  views  of  interests  than  by  a  zeal  for  true  religion.'^  Maclaine,  vol.  iv.  p. 
135.  He  had  before  acknowledged  that  king  (iustavus  introduced  Lutheran- 
ism  into  Sweden,  in  opposition  to  the  clergy  and  bishops,  "not  only  as  agreea- 
ble to  the  gcniuB  and  spirit  of  the  Gospel,  but  also  as  favourable  to  the  tempo- 
ral state  and  political  constitution  of  the  Swedish  dominions,"  pp.  79,  80.  He 
adds,  that  Christicrn,  who  introduced  the  reformation  into  Denmark,  was  ani- 
mated by  no  other  motive  than  those  of  ambiUon  and  avarice,  p.  82.  Groti- 
U8,  another  Protestant,  testifies  that  it  was  '*  sedition  and  violence  which  gave 
birth  to  the  Reformation  in  his  country,"  Holland.     Append,  de  Antichnsto. 


Letter  Fill.  39 

our  own  countr)^,  we  all  know  that  Henry  VIII.,  who  took  the 
first  step  towards  it,  was,  at  the  beginning  of  his  reign,  so  zea- 
lous against  it  that  he  wrote  a  book,  which  he  dedicated  to 
Pope  Leo  X.  In  opposition  to  it,  and  in  return,  obtained  for 
himself  and  his  successors,  from  this  pontiff,  the  title  of  Defen- 
der of  the  Faith.  Becoming  afterwards  enamoured  of  one  of 
his  queen's  maids  of  honour,  Ann  Bullen,  and  the  reigning 
Pope  refusing  to  sanction  an  adulterous  marriage  with  her,  he 
caused  a  statute  to  be  passed,  abrogating  the  Pope's  supremacy, 
and  declaring  himself  supreine  head  of  the  church  of  England,^ 
Thus  he  plunged  the  nation  into  schism,  and  opened  a  way  for 
eveiy  kind  of  heresy  and  impiet^\  In  short,  nothing  is  more 
evident  than  that  the  king's  inordinate  passion,  and  not  the 
word  of  God,  was  the  rule  followed  in  this  first  important 
change  of  our  national  religion.  The  unprincipled  duke  of 
Somerset,  who  next  succeeded  to  supreme  power  in  the  church 
and  state,  under  the  shadow  of  his  youthful  nephew,  Edward  VI, 
for  his  own  ambitious  and  avaricious  purposes,  pushed  on  the  Re- 
formation, so  called,  much  further  than  it  had  yet  been  carried. 
He  suppressed  the  remaining  colleges  and  hospitals,  which  the 
profligacy  of  Henry  had  spared,  converting  their  revenues  to  his 
own  and  his  associates' uses.  He  forced  Cranmer  and  the  other 
bishops,  to  take  out  fresh  commissions  for  governing  their  dio- 
ceses during  his  nephew's,  that  is,  his  own  good  pleasure.]  He 
made  a  great  number  of  important  changes  in  the  public  worship 
by  his  own  authority,  or  that  of  his  visitors  ;:j:  and  when  he  em- 
ployed certain  bishops  and  divines  in  forming  fresh  articles  and 
a  new  liturgy,  he  punished  them  with  imprisonment  if  they 

The  same  was  the  case  in  France,  Geneva,  and  Scotland.  It  is  to  be  observ- 
ed, that  in  all  these  countries  the  refoiTners,  as  soon  as  they  g-ot  the  upper 
hand,  became  violent  persecutors  of  the  Catholics.  Bcrgeir  defies  Protes- 
tants to  name  so  much  as  a  town  or  village  in  which,  when  they  became  mas- 
ters of  it,  they  tolerated  a  sing-le  Catholic. 

•  Archbishop  Parker  records,  thai  the  bishops  assembled  in  Synod  in  1531, 
offered  to  sig-n  this  new  title,  with  the  irllovviiig-  salvo,  ♦'  In  gucntiim  per 
Christi  leges  licet  .•"  but  that  the  king-  would  admit  of  no  such  modification. 
Antiq.  Brit.  p.  325.  In  the  end,  they  sinrcidcred  the  'A'hole  of  their  spirit- 
ual jurisdiction  to  him  (all  except  the  relig-ious  bishop  of  Rochester,  Fisher, 
who  was  put  to  death  for  his  refusal)  aid  v.cic  content  to  publish  Articles  of 
Religion  devised  by  the  King's  Higlnas.   Mcylin  Hist,  of  Reform.     (  oilier,  SiC. 

f  •'  LicemJam  concedimus  ad  nostrum  beneplacitum  dumtaxat  duratuiam." 
Burnet  Hist.  Ref.  Rec.  P.  II.  B.  i.  N.  2, 

\  Seethe  Injunctions  of  the  Council  to  Preachers,  published  before  the  par- 
liament met,  concerning'  the  mass  in  the  I  atin  languag-e,  players  for  tlic  dead, 
&c.  See  also  the  order  sent  to  the  j)nm:ite  ag-ainst  palms,  ashes,  &c. 
inHeylin,  Burnet,  and  Collier.  The  boy  Edward  \I.just  thirteen  years 
old,  was  taught  by  his  uncle  to  proclaim  as  fellows  :  •'  We  would  not  have 
our  subjects  so  much  to  mistake  our  judgment,  &c.  as  though  wc  could  not 
discern  what  is  to  be  done,  &c.  Cod  be  praised,  we  know  what,  by  his  word, 
kf  fit  to  be  redressed,*'  CeUier,  toI.  ii.  p.  246. 


40  Letter    VIII. 

were  not  obsequious  to  his  orders*.  He  even  took  on  himself 
to  alter  their  work,  when  sanctioned  by  parliament,  in  compli- 
ment to  the  church's  greatest  enemy,  Calvin.f  Afterwards, 
when  Elizabeth  came  to  the  throne,  a  new  reformation,  differ- 
ent in  its  articles  and  liturgy,  from  that  of  Edward  VI.,  was 
set  on  foot,  and  moulded,  not  according  to  Scripture,  but  to 
her  orders.  She  deposed  all  the  bishops  except  one,  "  the  ca- 
lamity of  his  see ^"^  as  he  was  called  ;:|:  and  she  required  the  ne\' 
ones,  whom  she  appointed,  to  renounce  certain  exercises,  which 
they  declared  to  be  agreeable  to  the  Word  of  God^^  but  which 

he  found  not  to  agree  with  her  system  of  politics.  She  even 
in  full  parliament,  threatened  to  depose  them  all,  if  they  did 
not  act  conformably  to  her  views. || 

V.  The  more  strictly  the  subject  is  examined,  the  more 
clearly  it  will  appear,  that  it  was  not  in  consequence  of  any 
investigation  of  the  Scriptures,  either  public  or  private,  that 
the  ancient  Catholic  religion  was  abolished,  and  one  or  other  of 
the  new  Protestant  religions  set  up,  in  the  different  northera 
kingdoms  and  states  of  Europe,  but  in  consequenc  of  the  poli- 
tics of  princes  and  statesmen,  the  avarice  of  the  nobility  and 
gentry,  and  the  irreligion  and  licentiousness  of  the  people,  I 
will  even  advance  a  step  further,  and  affirm  that  there  is  no  ap- 
pearance of  any  individual  Protestant,  to  whatever  sect  he  be- 
longs, having  formed  his  creed  by  the  rule  of  Scripture  alone. 
For  do  you,  sir,  really  believe  that  those  persons  of  your  com- 
munion, whom  you  see  the  most  diligent  and  devout.in  turning 
over  their  Bibles,  have  really  found  out  in  them  the  Thirty- 
nine  Articles,  or  any  other  creed  which  they  happen  to  profess? 
To  judge  more  certainly  of  this  matter,  I  wish  those  gentlemen 
who  are  the  most  zealous  and  active  in  distributing  Bibles 
among  the  Indians,  and  Africans,  in  their  different  countries, 
would  procure,  from  some  half  dozen  of  the  most  intelligent 
and  serious  of  their  proselytes,  who  have  heard  nohing  of  the 
Christian  faith  by  any  other  means  than  their  Bibles,  a  summa- 
ry of  what  they  respectively  understand  to  be  the  doctrine  and 
the  morality  taught  in  that  sacred  volume.  What  inconsi  .tent  and 

*  The  bishops  Heath  and  Gardiner  were  both  imprisoned  for  non-compli- 
ance. 

-j-  Heylin  complains  bitterly  of  Calvin's  prap^-maticai  spirit,  in  quaiTelling-  with 
the  Eng-lish  liturg-y,  and  soliciting"  the  protector  to  alt(*it.  Preface  to  Hist, 
of  Reform.  His  letters  to  Somerset  on  the  subject  may  be  seen  in  Fux^s  Acts 
and  Monum. 

t  Anthony  Kitch  n,  so  called  by  Godwin,  De  Prxsul,  and  Camden. 

§  This  took  place  with  respect  to  what  was  Xermcd  prophesying,  then  prac- 
tised by  many  Protestants,  and  defended  by  arclibisliop  Grindal  and  the  oth^-r 
bishops,  as  agreeable  to  God's  word:  nevertheless,  tlie  queen  oblig-ed  them 
to  suppress  it.     Col   Eccl.  Hist.  P.  H.  p.  554,  Sic. 

I  Sec  her  curious  speech  in  parliament,  March  25,  1585   in  Stow's  Annals, 


Letter  VIII.  41 

nonsensical  symbols  should  we  not  witness!  The  truth  is,  Pro- 
testants are  tutored  from  their  infancy,  b)'  the  help  of  cate- 
chisms and  creeds,  in  the  systems  of  their  resjjeclive  sects  ;they 
are  guided  by  their  parents  and  masters,  and  are  inilucnced  by 
the  opinions  and  example  of  those  with  whom  they  li\e  and 
converse ,  some  particular  texts  of  scripture  are  strongly  iiu.. 
pressed  upon  their  minds,  and  others  of  an  apparent  dilit-rent 
meaning,  are  kept  out  of  their  view,  or  glossed  over ;  and  above 
all,  it  is  constantly  inculcated  to  them,  that  their  religion  is  built 
upon  Scripture  alone ;  hence,  when  they  actually  read  the  Sci  ip- 
tures,  they  fancy  they  se€  there  what  they  have  been  otherwise 
taught  to  believe ;  the  Lutheran  for  example,  that  Christ  is  re- 
ally present  in  the  sacrament ;  the  Calvinist,  that  he  is  as  far 
distant  from  "it  as  heaven  is  from  earth;"  the  churchman, 
that  baptism  is  necessary  for  infants ;  the  Baptist,  that  it  is  im- 
piety to  confer  it  upon  them ;  and  so  of  all  the  other  forty  sects 
of  Protestants,  enumerated  by  Evans,  in  his  Sketch  of  the  dif- 
ferent Denominations  of  Christians^  and  of  twice  forty  other 
sects,  whom  he  omits  to  mention. 

When  I  remarked  that  our  blessed  Master  Jesus  Christ 
wrote  no  part  of  the  New  Testament  himself,  and  gave  no  or- 
ders to  his  apostles  to  write  it,  I  ought  to  have  added  that,  if 
he  had  intended  it,  together  with  the  Old  Testament,  to  be  the 
sole  rule  of  religion,  he  would  have  provided  means  for  their 
being  able  to  follow  it ;  knowing,  as  he  certainly  did,  that  nine- 
ty-nine in  every  hundred,  or  rather  nine  hundred  and  ninety- 
nine  in  every  thousand,  in  different  ages  and  countries^  would 
not  be  able  to  read  at  all,  and  much  less  to  comprehend  a  page 
of  the  sacred  writings :  yet  no  such  means  were  provided  by 
him :  nor  has  he  so  much  as  enjoined  it  to  his  followers  in  ge- 
neral to  study  letters. 

Another  observation  on  this  subject,  and  a  very  obvious  one 
is,  that  among  those  Christians,  who  profess  that  the  Bible  alone 
is  the  rule  of  their  religion,  there  ought  to  be  no  articles,  no 
catechisms,  no  sermons,  nor  other  instructions.  True  it  is, 
that  the  abolition  of  these,  however  incompatible  they  are  with 
the  rule  itself,  would  quickly  undermine  the  established  church, 
as  its  clergy  now  begin  to  understand,  and,  if  universally 
carried  into  effect,  would  in  the  end,  efface  the  whole  doctrine 
and  morality  of  the  Gospel:*  but  this  consequence  only  shows 
more  clearly  the  falsehood  of  that  exclusive  rule.     In  fact,  the 


•  The  Protestant  writers,  Kett  and  Robinson,  have  shown,  in  the  passage 
above  quoted,  how  the  principle  of  private  judgment  tends  to  undermine 
Christianity  at  large ;  and  archdeacon  Hook,  in  his  late  Charge,  shows,  by  au 

F 


42  Letter  VIII. 

most  enlightened  Protestants  find  themselves  here  in  a  dilemma, 
and  are  obliged  to  say  and  unsay,  to  the  amusement  ol*  some 
persons,  and  the  pity  of  others.*  They  cannot  abandon  tlie 
rule  of  the  Bible  aloiie^  as  explained  by  each  one  for  himself, 
without  proclaiming  their  guilt  in  refusing  to  hear  the  Catholic 
.church ;  and  they  cannot  adhere  to  it,  without  opening  the  flood- 
.gates  to  all  the  impiety  and  immorality  of  the  age  upon  their 
own  communion. — I  shall  have  occasion  hereafter  to  notice  the 
claims  of  the  established  church  to  authority,  in  determining 
the  sense  of  Scripture,  as  well  as  in  other  religious  controver- 
sies :  in  the  mean  time,  I  cannot  but  observe  that  her  most  able 
defenders  are  frequently  obliged  to  abandon  their  own,  and 
adopt  the  Catholic  rule  of  faith.  The  judicious  Hooker,  in  his 
defence  of  the  church  of  England,  writes  thus,  "  Of  this  we  arc 
right  sure,  that  nature.  Scripture,  and  experience  itself,  have 
taught  the  world  to  seek  for  the  ending  of  contentions,  by  sub- 
mitting to  some  judicial  and  definite  sentence,  whereunto  nei- 
ther party  that  contendeth  may,  under  any  pretence  or  colour, 
refuse  to  stand.  This  must  needs  be  effectual  and  strong.  As 
for  other  means,  without  this,  they  seldom  prevail."!  Ano- 
ther most  clear-headed  writer,  and  renowned  defender  of  the 
establishment,  whom  I  had  the  happiness  of  being  acquainted 
with.  Dr.  Balguy,!:  thus  expresses  himself,  in  a  Charge  to  the 
clergy  of  his  archdeaconry:  "The  opinions  of  the  people  are 
and  must  be  founded  more  on  authority  than  reason.  Their 
parents,  their  teachers,  their  governors,  in  a  great  measure,  de- 
termine for  them,  what  they  are  to  believe  and  what  to  prac- 
tise. The  same  doctrines  uniformly  taught,  the  same  rites  con- 
stantly performed,  make  such  an  impression  on  their  minds, 
that  they  hesitate  as  little  in  admitting  the  articles  of  their 

exact  statement  of  capital  convictions  in  diflerent  years,  that  the  increase  of 
immorality  has  kept  pace  with  that  of  the  Bible  societies. 

•  One  of  the  latest  instances  of  the  distress  in  question  was  exhibited  by 
the  Rt.  Rev.  Dr.  Marsh.  In  his  publication,  The  Inquiry ^  p.  4,  he  said,  very 
truly,  that  "the  poor  (who  constitute  the  bulk  of  mankind)  cannot  without 
assistance  understand  the  Scriptures."  Being'  congratulated  on  this  impor- 
tant, yet  unavoidable  concession,  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Gandolphy,  he  tacks  about, 
in  a  public  letter  to  that  g'cntleman,  and  s.iys,  that  what  he  wrote,  in  his  In- 
quiry, concerning  the  necessity  of  a  further  rule  than  mere  Scripture  only, 
regards  the  w/ai/w/ime/i/ of  religion,  not  the  truth  of'it:  just  as  if  that  rule 
were  sufficient  to  conduct  tlie  people  to  the  truik  of  religion,  while  he  ex- 
pressly says  they  cannot,  understand  it. 

f  Hooker's  Eccles.  Politic,  Pref.  art.  6. 

t  Discourses  on  various  Subjects,  by  T.  Ralguy,  D.  D.  archdeacon  and 
prebendary  of  Winchester.  Some  of  tliese  discourses  were  preached  at  the 
consecration  of  bisliops,  and  published  by  order  of  the  archbishop;  some  h\ 
Charges  to  the  Clergy.  'I'lie  wliole  of  tliem  are  dedicated  to  the  king,  whom 
the  writer  thanks  for  naming  him  to  a  high  dignity  (the  bishopric  of  Glouct- 
•ter),  and  for  permitting  him  to  decline  accepting  of  it.  .  ,  ..^i    ,^.^ 


Letter  VIII.  45 

iaith,  as  in  receiving  the  most  established  maxiftis  of  common 
life."*  With  such  testimonies  before  your  eyes,  can  you,  dear 
sir,  imagine  that  the  bulk  of  Protestants  have  formed  their  reli- 
gion by  the  standard  of  Scripture  ?  He  goes  on  to  say,  speaking 
of  controverted  points :  "  Would  you  have  them  (the  people) 
think  for  themselves  ?  Would  you  have  them  hear  and  decide 
the  controversies  of  the  learned  ?  Would  you  have  them  enter 
into  the  depths  of  criticism,  of  logic,  of  scholastic  divinity? 
You  might  as  well  expect  thtm  to  compute  an  eclipse,  or  de- 
cide between  the  Cartesian  and  Newtonian  philosophy.  Nay, 
I  will  go  farther:  for  I  take  upon  myself  to  say,  there  are 
more  men  capable,  in  some  competent  degree,  of  understand- 
ing Newton's  philosophy,  than  of  forming  any  judgment  at  all 
concerning  the  abstruser  questions  in  metaphysics  and  theolo- 
g}%"  Yet  the  persons,  of  whom  the  doctor  particularly  speaks, 
were  all  furnished  with  Bibles;  and  the  abstruse  questions, 
which  he  refers  to,  are:  "Whether  Christ  did  or  did  not  come 
down  from  heaven?"  whether  "he  died  or  did  not  die  for  the 
sins  of  the  world?"  whether  "he  sent  his  Holy  Spirit  to  assist 
and  comfort  us  or  whether  he  did  not  send  him?"f  The  learn- 
ed doctor  elsewhere  expresses  himself  still  more  explicitly  on 
the  subject  of  Scripture,  without  church  authority.  He  is  com- 
bating the  dissenters,  but  his  weapons  are  evidently  as  fatal  to 
his  own  church  as  to  theirs.  "  It  has  long  been  held  among 
them,  that  Scripture  only  is  the  rule  and  test  of  all  religious 
ordinances ;  and  that  human  authority  is  to  be  altogether  ex- 
cluded. Their  ancestors,  I  believe,  would  have  been  not  a 
little  embarrassed  with  their  own  maxim,  if  they  had  not  pos- 
sessed a  singular  talent  of  seeing-  every  thing  in  Scripture 
■which  they  had  a  mind  to  see.  Almost  every  sect  could  find 
there  its  o^vn  peculiar  form  of  church  government;  and  xvhile 
they  enforced  only  their  own  imaginations^  they  believed  th^m- 
selves  to  be  executing  the  decrees  of  heaven,^'' \ 

I  conclude  this  long  letter,  with  a  passage  to  the  present  pur- 
pose from  our  admired  theological  poet: 

**  As  long^  as  words  a  different  sense  will  bear. 

And  each  may  be  his  own  interpreter, 

Our  airy  faith  will  no  foundation  find : 
,  The  words  a  weatliercock  for  every  wind."§ 

I  am.  Dear  Sir,  &c. 

J.  M. 

discourses  on  various  Subjects,  oy  T,  Balgiiy,  D.  D.  p.  257.    f  Ibid. 
i  Discourse  VH.  p.  126.     §  Dryden's  Hind  and  Panther,  Part  I. 


C     44     ) 

LETTER  IX. 

TO  JAMES  BROWN,  Esq. 
SECOND   FALSE  RULE. 
Dear  Sir, 

AFTER  all  that  I  have  written  concerning  the  rule  of  faith, 
adopted  by  yourself  and  other  more  rational  Protestants,  I  have 
only  yet  treated  of  the  extrinsic  arguments  against  it.  I  now, 
therefore  proceed  to  investigate  its  Ininnsic  nature^  in  order  to 
show  more  fully  the  inadequacy,  or  rather  the  falsehood  of  it. 

When  an  English  Protestant  gets  possession  of  an  English 
Bible,  printed  by  Thomas  Basket,  or  other  "printer  to  the 
king's  most  excellent  majesty,"  he  takes  it  in  hand  with  the 
same  confidence,  as  if  he  had  immediately  received  it  from  the 
Almighty  himself,  as  Moses  received  the  Tables  of  the  Law 
on  Mount  Sina,  amidst  thunder  and  lightening.  But  how  vain 
is  thir,  confidence,  whilst  he  adheres  to  the  foregoing  rule  of 
faith !  How  many  questionable  points  does  he  assume,  as  proved, 
which  cannot  be  proved,  without  relinquishing  his  own  princi- 
ples and  adopting  ours ! 

I.  Supposing  then  you,  dear  sir,  to  be  the  Protectant  I  have 
been  speaking  of;  1  begin  with  asking  you,  by  what  means  have 
you  learnt  the  canon  of  Scripture,  that  is  to  say,  which  are  the 
books  which  have  been  written  by  divine  inspiration ;  or  indeed 
that  any  books  at  all,  have  been  so  written?  You  cannot  disco- 
ver either  of  these  things  by  your  rule,  because  the  Scripture, 
as  your  great  authority  Hooker  shows,-^  and  Chillingworth  al- 
lows cannot  bear  testimony  to  itself.  You  will  say  that  the  Old 
Testament  was  written  by  Moses  and  the  prophets,  and  the 
New  Testament  by  the  apostles  of  Christ  and  the  evangelists. 
But  admitting  all  this;  it  does  not  of  itself  prove  that  the\'  al- 
ways wrote,  or  indeed  that  the}-  ever  wrote,  under  the  influ- 
ence of  inspiration.  They,  were,  by  nature,  fallible  men:  how 
have  you  learnt  that  they  were  infallible  writers  ?  In  the  next 
place,  you  receive  books,  as  canonical  parts  of  the  Testament, 
which  were  not  written  by  apostles  at  all ;  namely,  the  Gospels 
of  St  Mark  and  St.  Luke,  whilst  you  reject  an  authentic  work 
of  gioat  exv.ellence,!  written  by  one  who  is  termed  in  Scripture 

j  •  Eccles.  Polit.  b.  iii.  sec.  8. 
t  S<.  Bamaby.    See  Grabe's  Splclleg-.  And  Cotlcnis's  Collect. 


Letter  IX,  45 

an  apostle^  and  declared  to  h^full  of  the  Holy  Ghost ^\  I  speak 
of  St  Barnaby.  Lastly,  you  have  no  sufficient  authority  for 
asserting  that  the  sacred  volumes  are  the  genuine  composition 
of  the  holy  personages  whose  names  they  bear,  except  the  tra- 
dition and  living  voice  of  the  Catholic  church,  since  numerous 
apochryphal  prophecies  and  spurious  gospels  and  epistles,  under 
the  same  or  equally  venerable  names,  were  circulated  in  the 
church,  during  its  early  ages,  and  accredited  by  different  learn- 
ed writers  and  holy  fathers :  while  some  of  the  really  canonical 
books  were  rejected  or  doubted  of  by  them.  In  short,  it  was 
not  until  the  end  of  the  fourth  century,  that  the  genuine  canon  ■ 
of  Holy  Scripture  was  fixed:  and  then  it  was  fixed  by  the  tra- 
dition and  authority  of  the  churchy  declared  in  the  Third  Coun- 
cil of  Carthage  and  a  Decretal  of  P.  Innocent  I.  Indeed,  it  is 
so  clear  that  the  canon  of  Scripture  is  built  on  the  tradition  of. 
the  church,  that  most  learned  Protestants,^  with  Luther  him- 
self, have§  been  forced  to  acknowledge  it,  in  terms  almost  as 
strong  as  those  in  the  well  known  declaration  of  St  Augustine.|| 
II.  Again,  supposing  the  divine  authority  of  the  Sacred  Books 
themselves  to  be  established ;  how  do  you  know  that  the  copies 
of  them  translated  and  printed  in  your  Bible  are  authentic  I  Jit 
is  agreej.jigQn  amongst  the  learned,  that  the  original  text  of 
Moses  and  the  ancient  prophets^  was  destroyed,  with  the  tem- 
ple and  city  of  Jerusalem  by  the  Assyrians  under  Nebuchad- 
nezzar j^  and,  though  they  were  replaced  by  authentic  copies, 
at  the  end  of  the  Babylonish  captivity,  through  the  pious  care 
of  the  prophet  Esdras  or  Ezra,  yet  that  these  also  perished  in 
the  subsequent  persecution  of  Antiochus  ;=^^  from  which  time  we 
have  no  evidence  of  the  authenticity  of  the  Old  Testament  till 
this  was  supplied  by  Christ  and  his  apostles,  who  transmitted 
it  to  the  church.  In  like  manner,  granting,  for  example,  that 
St.  Paul  wrote  an  inspired  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  and  another 
to  the  Ephesians;  yet  as  the  former  was  intrusted  to  an  indi- 
vidual, the  deaconess  Phebe,  to  be  conveyed  by  her  to  its  des- 
tination,ff  and  the  latter  to  his  disciple  Tychicus,:|::j:  for  the 
same  purpose,  it  is  impossible  for  you  to  entertain  a  rational 
conviction  that  these  Epistles  as  they  stand  in  your  Testament, 

•  Acts  xiv.  24.  t  Acts  xi.  24. 

%  Hooker,  Eccl.  Polit.'C.  iii.  S.  8  Dr.  Lardner,  in  Bishop  Watson's  Col. 
vol  ii.  p.  20. 

§  "We  are  obliged  to  yield  many  things  to  the  Papists — that  with  them 
is  tiie  word  of  God,  which  we  received  from  them ;  otherwise  we  should  have 
known  nothing  at  all  about  it."  Comment,  on  John  c.  16. 

B  "I  should  not  beUeve  the  Gospel  itself,  if  the  authority  of  tlie  Catholic 
church  did  not  oblige  me  to  do  so."  Contra  Epist.  Fundara. 

5  Brett's  Dissert,  in  bishop  Watson's  Collect,  vol.  iii.  p.  5. 

*•  Ibid.     ^     ft  Rom.  xvi.  See  Calmet,  &c.  4t  Ephes.  vi.  21. 


46  Letter  IX, 

aj*e  exactly  in  the  state  in  which  they  issued  from  the  apostle's 
pen  or  that  they  are  his  genuine  Epistles  at  all,  without  recur- 
ring to  the  tradition  and  authority  of  the  Catholic  church  con- 
cerning them.  To  make  short  of  this  matter,  I  will  not  lead 
you  into  the  labyrinth  of  Biblical  criticism,  nor  will  I  show  you 
the  endless  varieties  of  readings  with  respect  to  words  and 
whole  passages,  which  occur  in  different  copies  of  the  Sacred 
Text,  but  will  here  content  myself  with  referring  you  to  your 
own  Bible  Book,  as  printed  by  authority.  Look  then  at  psalm 
xiv,  as  it  occurs  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  to  which 
your  clergy  swear  their  "consent  and  assent,-'"  then  look  at  the 
same  psalm  in  your  Bible :  you  will  find  four  whole  verses  in  the 
former,  which  are  left  out  of  the  latter !  What  will  you  here 
say,  dear  sir?  You  must  say  that  your  church  has  added  to,  or 
else  that  she  has  taken  azvai/  fro?n^  the  words  of  this  prophecy  !^ 
III.  But  your  pains  and  perplexities  concerning  your  rule  of 
faith  must  not  stop  even  at  this  point :  for  though  you  had  de- 
monstrative evidence,  that  the  several  books  in  your  Bible  are 
canonical  and  authentic,  in  the  originals,  it  would  still  remain 
for  you  to  inquire  whether  or  no  they  are  faithfully  translated 
in  your  English  copy.  In  fact,  you  are  aware  that  they  were 
written,  some  of  them  in  Hebrew  and  some  of  them  in. Greek, 
out  of  which  languages  they  were  translated,  for  the  last  time, 
by  about  fifty  different  men,  of  various  capacities,  learning, 
judgment,  opinions,  and  prejudices.!  In  this  inquiry,  the  Ca- 
tholic church  herself  can  afford  you  no  security  to  liuild  your 
faith  upon  ;  much  less  can  any  private  individuals  whosoever. 
The  celebrated  Protestant  divine,  Episcopius,  was  so  convinced 
of  the  fallibility  of  modern  translations,  that  he  wanted  all  sorts 
of  persons,  labourers,  sailors,  women,  &c.  to  learn  Hebrew  and 
Greek.  Indeed,  it  is  obvious  that  the  sense  of  the  text  may 
depend  upon  the  choice  of  a  single  word  in  the  translation :  nay, 
it  sometimes  depends  upon  the  mere  punctuation  of  a  sentence, 
.;is  may  be  seen  below.|      Can  you  then,  consistently,  reject  the 

•  The  verses  in  question  being-  quoted  by  St.  Paul,  Rom.  iii.  13,  &c.  there 
is  no  doubt  but  the  common  Bible  is  defective  in  this  passage. — On  the  other 
hand,  the  bishop  of  Lincoln  has  puMished  his  conviction  that  the  most  im- 
portant passage  in  the  New  Testament,  1  John  v.  7,  for  establishing  the 
divinity  of  Jesus  Christ,   *' is  spurious."     Elem.  of  Theo.  vol.  ii.  p,  90 

+  See  a  list  of  tliem  in  Ant.  Johnson's  Hist.  Account.  Theo.  Collect,  p. 
95. 

\  One  of  the  strongest  passages  for  the  divinity  of  Christ  is  the  following, 
p&  it  is  pointed  in  the  Vulgate  :  Ex  ([uibus  est  Christus,  secundem  carnem,  qiu 
j'<  super  omnia  Deits  bentdidus  in  sxcula.  Rom.  ix.  5.  But  sec  how  Grotius 
Mid  Socinus  deprive  the  text  of  all  its  strength,  by  merely  substituting  a 
point  for  a  comma  :  Ex  fjuibtiH  est  Christus^  secundem  curntm,  Quie&tsuuer 
?mnia  Deus  benedicim  in  ssecula.  •.•••. 


Letter  IX.  47 

authority  of  the  great  universal  church,  and  yet  build  upon  that 
of  some  obscure  translator  in  the  reign  of  James  I.  ?  No,  sir  ; 
)'ou  must  yourself  have  compared  your  English  liible  with  the 
originals,  and  have  proved  it  to  be  a  faithful  version,  before 
you  can  build  your  faitli  upon  it  as  upon  the  Word  of  God.  To 
say  one  word  now  of  the  Bibles  themselves,  which  have  been 
published  by  authorit}-,  or  generally  used  by  Protestants,  in 
this  country.  Those  of  Tindal,  Coverdale,  and  queen  Eliza- 
beth's bishops,  were  so  notoriously  corrupt,  as  to  cause  a 
general  outcry  against  them,  among  learned  Protestants,  as 
well  as  among  Catholics,  in  which  the  king  (James  I.)  joined 
himself,  =^  w^ho  according!  v  ordered  a  new  version  of  it  to  be  made, 
being  the  same  that  is  now  in  use,  w^ith  some  few  alterations 
made  after  the  restoration.!  Now,  though  these  new  transla- 
tors have  corrected  many  wailful  errors  of  their  predecessors, 
most  of  which  were  levelled  at  Catholic  doctrines  and  disci- 
pline,!  yet  they  have  left  a  sufficient  number  of  these  behind, 
for  which  I  do  not  find  that  their  advocates  offer  any  excuse.^ 
IV.  I  will  make  a  further  supposition,  namely,  that  you  had 
the  certainty  even  of  revelation,  as  the  Calvinists  used  to  pre- 
tend they  had,  that  your  Bible  is  not  only  canonical^  authentic^ 
Biid  faithful^  in  its  English  garb  ;  yet  what  would  all  this  avail 
you,  towards  establishing  your  rule  of  faith,  vmless  you  could 
be  equally  certain  of  your  imderstcmding'  the -whole  of  it  rightly  ? 
For,  as  the  learned  Protestant  bishop  Walton  says,||  "The 
Word  of  God  does  not  consist  in  mere  letters,  whether  written 
or  printed,  but  in  the  true  sense  of  it  ;|[  which  no  one  can  bet- 
ter interpret  than  the  true  church,  to  which  Christ  committed 
this  sacred  pledge."  This  is  exactly  what  St.  Jerom  and  St. 
Augustin  had  said  many  ages  before  him.  "  Let  us  be  per- 
suaded," says  the  former,  "  that  the  Gospel  consists  not  in  the 
words,  but  in  the  sense.     A  wrong  explanation  turns  the  Word 

*  Bishop  Watson's  Collect,  vol.  iii.  p.  98.  flbid. 

+  These  may  be  found  in  the  learned  Greg".  Martin's  treatise  on  the  subject, 
and  in  Ward's  Errata  to  the  Protestant  Bible.  V 

§  Two  of  these  I  had  occasion  to  notice,  in  the  Inquiry  into  the  Character 
of  the  Irish  Catholics^  namely,  1  Cor.  xi,  27,  where  the  conjunctive  and  is  put 
for  the  disjunctive  or,'  and  Mat.  xix.  11,  where  cannot  is  put  forcfo  not ,-  to 
the  altering  of  the  sense,  in  both  instances.  Now,  though  these  corruptions 
stand  in  direct  opposition  to  the  orig-inal,  as  the  Rev.  Mr.  Grief  and  Dr.  Ryan 
themselves  quote  it,  yet  these  writers  have  the  confidence  to  deny  they  are 
corruptions,  because  they  pretend  to  prove,  from  other  texts,  that  the  citp  is 
necessary,  and  that  cmitinency  is  not  necessary  !!  Answer  to  Ward's  Errata, 
p.  13,  page  33. 

U  In  the  Prolegomena  to  his  Pohglott,  cap.  v. 

\  This  obvious  truth  shows  the  extreme  absurdity  of  our  Bible  societies  and 
modern  schools,  which  regard  nothing  but  the  mere  rffi«///2,ir  i^/ /^^  Bihhy 
leaving  persons  to  embrace  the  most  opposite  intepretations  of  the  same 
texts. 


48  Letter  IX. 

of  God  into  the  word  of  man,  and  what  is  worse,  into  the  word 
of  the  devil  ;  for  the  devil  himself  could  quote  the  text  of 
Scripture."" *=  Now  that  there  are  in  Scripture  thing's  hard  to  be 
understood^  which  the  unlearned  and  unstable  wrest  unto  their 
own  destruction^  is  expressly  affirmed  in  it.f  The  same  thing 
is  proved  by  the  frequent  mistakes  of  the  apostles  themselves, 
with  respect  to  the  words  of  their  divine  Master.  These  ob- 
scurities are  so  numberless  throughout  the  sacred  volumes, 
that  the  last  quoted  father,  who  was  as  bright  and  learned  a 
divine  as  ever  took  the  Bible  in  hand,  says  of  it,  "  There  are 
more  things  in  Scripture  that  I  am  ignorant  of  than  those  I 
know.":|:  Should  you  prefer  a  modern  Protestant  authority  to 
an  ancient  Catholic  one,  listen  to  the  clear-headed  Dr.  Balguy- 
His  words  are  these  :  "But  what,  you  will  reply,  is  all  this  to 
Christians  ?  to  those  who  see,  by  a  clear  and  strong  light,  the 
dispensation  of  God  to  mankind  t  We  are  not  as  those  who 
have  710  hope.  The  daif -spring  from  on  high  hath  visited  us. 
The  spirit  of  God  shall  lead  us  ijito  all  truth, — To  this  delusive 
dream  of  human  folly,  founded  only  on  mistaken  interpreta- 
tions of  Scripture  ;  I  answer,  in  one  word  :  Open  your  Bibles  : 
take  the  first-page  that  occurs  in  either  Testament,  and  tell  me 
without  disguise  ;  is  there  nothing  in  it  too  hard  for  your  un- 
derstanding ?  If  you  find  all  before  you  clear  and  easy^  you  may 
thank  God  for  giving  you  a  privilege  which  he  has  denied  to 
many  thousands  of  sincere  believers."§ 

Manifold  is  the  cause  of  the  obscurity  of  Holy  AVrit ;  1st, 
the  sublimity  of  a  considerable  part  of  it,  which  speaks  either 
literally  or  figuratively  of  the  Deity  and  his  attributes  ;  of  the 
Word  incarnate ;  of  angels,  and  other  spiritual  beings  ; — 2dly, 
the  mysterious  nature  of  prophecy  in  general : — 3dly,  the  pe- 
culiar Hioms  of  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  languages : — ^lastly^ 
the  numerous  and  bold  figures  of  speech,  such  as  allegory, 
irony,  hyp'^rbole,  catachresis,  and  antiphrasis,  which  are  so 
frequent  wiih  the  sacred  penmen,  particularly  the  ancient 
prophets.il  1  should  like  to  hear  any  one  of  those,  who  pre- 
tend to  find  the  Scripture  so  easy,  attempting  to  give  a  clear 
explanation  of  the  67th,  alias  the  68th,  psalm  ;  or  the  last  chap- 
ter of  Ecclesiastes.  Is  it  any  easy  matter  to  reconcile  certain 
well-known  speeches  of  each  of  the  holy  patriarchs,  Abraham, 
Isaac,  and  Jacob,  with  the  incommutable  pi«ecept  of  truth  ?  I 
may  here  notice,  among  a  thousand  other  such  difficulties,  that 

•  In.  Ep  ad  Galat.  contra  Lucif.  t  ^  Pe^-  i"-  16. 

t  St.  Aug-.  Ep.  adJanuar. 
§  Dr.  BaJguy's  Discourses,  p.  133. 

B  See  examples  of  these,  in  Bonfrcrius's  Prjeloquia,  and  in  the  Appendixes 
to  them,  at  the  end  of  Menochius.      • 
i .■• 


Letter  IX.  49 

when  our  Saviour  sent  his  twelve  apostles  to  preach  the  Gospel 
to  the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel,  he  told  them,  according 
to  St.  Matthew  x.  10,  Provide  neither  gold  nor  silver — neither 
shoes  nor  yet  staves  :  whereas  St»  Mark  vi.  says,  He  command- 
ed them  that  they  should  take  nothing  for  their  journey^  save  a 
staff  only.  You  may  indeed  answer,  with  Chillingworth  and 
bishop  Porteus,  that  whatever  obscurities  there  may  be  in  cer- 
tain parts  of  Scripture,  it  is  clear  in  all  that  is  necessary  to  be 
known.  But  on  what  authority  do  these  waiters  ground  this 
,  maxim  ?  They  have  none  at  all ;  but  they  beg  the  question^  as 
'  logicians  express  it,  to  extricate  themselves  from  an  absurdity, 
'  and  in  so  doing  they  overturn  their  fundamental  rule.  They 
profess  to  gather  their  articles  of  faith  and  morals  from  mere 
Scripture  :  nevertheless,  confessing  that  they  understand  only 
a  part  of  it ;  they  presume  to  make  a  distinction  in  it,  and  to 
say  this  part  is  necessary  to  be  known,  the  other  part  is  not  ne- 
cessary. But  to  place  this  matter  in  a  clearer  light,  it  is  obvi- 
ous that  if  any  articles  are  particularly  necessary  to  be  known 
and  believed,  they  are  those  w^hich  point  to  the  God  whom  we 
are  to  adore,  and  the  moral  precepts  which  we  are  to  observe. 
Now,  is  it  demonstratively  evident,  from  7nere  Scripture^  that 
Christ  is  God,  and  to  be  adored  as  such  ?  Most  modem  Pro- 
testants of  eminence  answer  NO  ;  and,  in  defence  of  their  as- 
sertion, quote  the  following  among  other  texts  :  The  Father  is 
greater  than  /,  John  xiv.  28  ;  to  which  the  orthodox  divines 
oppose  those  texts  of  the  same  evangelist,  /  and  the  Father  are 
one^  X.  30.  The  Word  was  God^  &c.  i.  1.  Again  we  find  the  fol- 
lov/ing  among  the  moral  precepts  of  the  Old  Testament :  Go  thy 
way  ;  eat  thy  bread  zvithjoy^  and  drink  thy  zvine  with  a  merry 
heart :  for  God  now  accepteth  thy  works.  Let  thy  garments 
be  always  ivhite^  and  let  thy  head  lack  no  ointjnent.  Live  joif- 
fully  with  the  zvife  whom  thou  lovest^  &c.  Eccles.  ix.  7,  8,  9. 
In  the  New  Testament,  we  meet  with  the  following  seeming- 
ly practical  commands.  Sxvear  not  at  all^  Mat.  v.  34.  Call 
no  man  father  upon  earth — neither  be  you  called  masters^  for  one 
is  your  master^  Christy  Mat.  xxiii,  9.  10.  If  any  man  sue  thee 
■''at  law^  to  take  away  thy  coat^  let  him  have  thy  cloak  also^  v.  46. 
Give  to  every  man  that  asketh  of  thee  ;  and  of  him  that  taketh 
avoay  thy  goods  ask  him  not  again^  Luke  vi.  33.  When  thou 
viakest  a  ditiner  or  a  supper^  call  not  thy  friends  nor  thy  brethren^ 
xiv.  12.  These  are  a  few  among  hundreds  of  other  difficul- 
ties, regarding  our  moral  duties,  which,  though  confronted  by 
other  texts,  seemingly  of  a  contrary  meaning,  nevertheless  show 
tliat  the  Scripture  is  not,  of  itself,  demonstratively  clear  in  points 
ot  first  rate  importance,  and  that  the  divine  law,  like  human 

G 


50  Letter  IX. 

laws,  w  ithout  an  authorized  interpreter,  must  ever  be  a  source 
of  doubt  and  contention. 

V.  I  have  said  enough  concerning  the  contentions  among  Pro- 
testants ;  I  will  now,  by  way  of  concluding  this-letter,  say  a  v/ord 
or  two  of  their  doubts.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  certain,  as  a  learn- 
ed Catholic  controvertist  argues,*  that  a  person  who  follows 
your  rule  vannot  make  an  act  of  faith  ^  this  being,  according  to 
your  great  authority,  bishop  Pearson,  an  assent  to  the  revealed 
articles,  with  a  certain  and  full  persuasion  of  their  revealed 
truth  ;f  or,  to  use  the  words  of  your  primate.  Wake,  "When  I 
jgive  my  assent  to  what  God  has  revealed,  I  do  it,  not  only  with 
'a  certain  assurance  that  what  I  believe  is  true^  but  with  an  ab- 
solute  security  that  it  cannot  be  false.''''\  Now  the  Protestant, 
who  has  nothing  to  trust  to  but  his  own  talents,  in  interpreting 
of  the  books  of  Scripture,  especially  with  all  the  difficulties  and 
uncertainties  which  he  labours  under,  according  to  what  I  have 
shown  above,  never  can  rise  to  this  certain  assurance  and  abso- 
lute security^  as  to  what  is  revealed  in  Scripture :  the  utmost 
he  can  say  is.  Such  and  such  appears  to  me^  at  the  present  mo- 
7?ient^  to  be  the  sense  of  the  texts  before  me:  and,  if  he  is  candid, 
he  will  add,  but  perhaps^  upon  further  consideration^  and  upon 
comparing  these  zvith  other  texts^  I  may  alter  my  opinion.  How 
iar  short,  dear  sir,  is  such  mere  opinion  from  the  certainty  of 
faith !  I  may  here  refer  you  to  your  own  experience.  Are 
you  accustomed,  in  reading  your  Bible,  to  conclude,  in  your 
own  mind,  with  respect  to  those  points  which  appear  to  you 
most  clear,  I  believe  in  these^  with  a  certain  assurance  of  their 
truth^  and  an  absolute  security  that  they  cannot  be  false ;  espe- 
cially vv'hen  you  reflect  that  other  learned,  intelligent,  and  sin- 
cere Christians  have  understood  those  passages  in  quite  a  dif- 
ferent sense  from  what  you  do  ?  For  my  part,  having  some- 
times lived  and  conversed  familiarly  with  Protestants  of  this 
description,  and  noticed  their  controversial  discourses,  I  never 
f  oinid  one  of  them  absolutely  fixed,  for  any  long  time  together, 
in  his  mind,  as  to  the  whole  of  his  belief.  I  invite  you  to  male 
tlie  experiment  on  the  m.ost  intelligent  and  religious  Protestant 
of  your  acquaintance.  Ask  him  a  considerable  number  of  ques- 
tions, on  the  most  important  points  of  his  religion:  note  down 
his  answers,  while  they  are  fresh  in  your  memory.  Ask  him 
the  same  questions,  but  in  a  different  o^^er,  a  month  after- 
wards, when  I  can  almost  venture  to  say,  you  will  be  surprised 
at  the  difturence  you  will  find  between  his  former  and  his  lat- 

•  Slicffmaclier  Zc//rcs  c?'wn  Docieur  Cat.  a  un  Gmtilhomme  Prof.  vol.  i.  p. 
48. 

t  On  the  Creed,  p.  15.  ^  Princip.  of  Christ.  Rcl.  p.  27. 


Letter  IX.  51 

ter  creed.  After  all,  we  need  not  use  any  other  means  to  dis- 
cover the  state  of  doubt  and  uncertainty  in  which  many  of  your 
greatest  divines  and  most  profound  Scriptural  students  have 
passed  their  days,  than  to  look  into  their  publications.  I  shall 
satisfy  myself  with  citing  the  pastoral  Charge  of  one  of  them, 
a  living  bishop,  to  his  clergy.  Speaking  of  the  Christian  doc- 
trines, he  says,  '^  I  think  it  safer  to  tell  you  xvhere  they  are  con- 
tained^ than  what  they  are.  They  are  contained  in  the  Bible  j 
and  if,  in  reading  that  Book,  your  sentiments  concerning  the  doc- 
trines of  Christianity  should  be  different  from  those  of  your 
neighbour,  or  from  those  of  the  churchy  be  persuaded,  on  youj 
part,  that  infallibility  appertains  as  little  to  you  as  it  does  to  the 
church."*  Can  you  read  this,  my  dear  sir,  without  shuddering? 
If  a  most  learned  and  intelligent  bishop  and  professor  of  divi- 
Tiit\',  as  Dr.  Watson  certainly  is,  after  studying  all  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  all  the  commentators  upon  them,  is  forced  publicly 
to  confess  to  his  assembled  clergy,  that  he  cannot  tell  them  what 
the  doctrines  of  Christianity  are^  how  unsettled  must  his  mind 
have  been!  and,  of  course,  how  far  removed  from  the  assurance 
of  faith  !  In  the  next  place,  how  fallacious  must  thr.t  rule  of 
the  mere  Bible  be,  which,  while  he  recommends  it  to  them,  he 
plainly  signifies,  will  not  lead  them  to  a  uniformity  of  senti- 
ments one  with  another,  not  even  v/ith  their  church ! 

There  can  be  no  doubt,  sir,  but  those  who  entertain  doubts 
concerning  the  truth  of  their  religion,  in  the  course  of  their 
lives,  must  experience  the  same,  with  redoubled  anxiety,  at  the 
approach  of  death.  Accordingly  there  are,  I  believe,  few  of  our 
Catholic  priests,  in  an  extensive  ministry,  who  have  not  been 
frequently  called  in  to  receive  dying  Protestants  into  the  Ca- 
tholic church,f  while  not  a  single  instance  of  a  Catholic  wish- 
ing to  die  in  any  other  communion  than  his  own  can  be  produc- 
ed.:):    O  death,  thou  great  enlightener!  O  truth-telling  death, 

■  •  Bishop  Watson's  Charg-e  to  his  Clerg-y,  in  1795. 
f  A  large  proportion  of  those  grandees  who  were  the  most  forward  in  promot- 
ing the  Reformation,  so  called,  and,  among-  the  rest,  Cromwell,  earl  of  Essex, 
the  king's  ecclesiastical  vicar,  when  they  came  to  die,  returned  to  the  Catho- 
lic church.  This  was  the  case  also  with  Luther's  chief  protector,  the  elector 
of  Saxony,  the  persecuting  queen  of  Navarre,  and  many  other  foreign  Protes- 
tant princes.  Some  bishops  of  the  estabhshed  church;  for  instance,  Good- 
man and  Cheyney,  of  Gloucester,  and  Gordon,  of  Glasgow,  probably  also  Hali- 
fax, of  St.  Asaph's,  died  Catholics.  A  long  hst  of  titled  or  otherwise  distin- 
guished personages,  who  have  either  returned  to  the  Catholic  faith,  or  for  the 
first  time,  embraced  it  on  their  death-beds,  in  modern  times,  might  be  named 
here,  if  it  were  prudent  to  do  so. 

t  This  is  remarked  by  sir  Toby  Matthews,  son  of  the  archbishop  of  York, 
Hugh  Creasy,  Canon  of  Windsor  and  dean  of  Laughlin,  F.  Walsingham,  and 
Aivt,  Ulric,  duke  of  Brunswick,  all  illustrious  oonvens.  Also  by  Beurier,  in 
bis  Qmfcrcnccst  p.  4Q0, 


52  Letter  X, 

how  powerful  art  thou  in  confuting  the  blasphemies,  and  dissi- 
pating the  prejudices,  of  the  enemies  of  God's  church! — Tak- 
ing it  for  granted,  that  you,  dear  sir,  have  not  been  without  your 
doubts  and  fears  about  the  safety  of  the  road  in  which  you  are 
walking  to  eternity,  more  particularly  in  the  course  of  the  pre- 
sent controversy,  and  being  anxious,  beyond  expression,  that 
you  should  be  free  from  these  when  you  arrive  at  the  brink  of 
that  vast  ocean,  I  cannot  do  better  than  address  you  in  the 
words  of  the  great  St.  Augustine,  to  one  in  your  situation:  "  If 
you  think  you  have  been  sufficiently  tossed  about,  and  wish  to 
see  an  end  to  your  anxieties,  follow  the  rule  of  Catholic  disci- 
pline, which  came  down  to  us  through  the  apostles  from  Christ 
himself,  and  which  shall  descend  from  us  to  the  latest  posteri- 
ty."* Yes,  renounce  the  fatal  and  foolish  presumption  of  fan- 
cying that  you  can  interpret  the  Scripture  better  than  the  Ca- 
tholic church,  aided,  as  she  is,  by  the  tradition  of  all  ages,  and 
the  spirit  of  all  truth, \  But  I  mean  to  treat  this  latter  subject 
Sit  clue  length  in  my  next  letter. 


I  am,  Dear  Sir,  &c. 


J.  M. 


LETTER  X. 

TO  JAMES  BROWN,  Esq. 
TEE  TRUE  RULE. 
Dear  Sir, 

I  HAVE  received  your  letter,  and  also  two  others  from 
gentlemen  of  Aour  society,  on  what  I  have  written  to  you  con- 
cerning the  insufficiency  of  Scripture,  interpreted  by  individu- 
als, to  constitute  a  secure  rule  of  faith.  From  these,  it  is  plain 
that  my  arguments  have  produced  a  considerable  sensation  in 

*  DuUtil.  Cred.  c.  8. 
J  Bnssuet,  In  liis  celebrated  Conference  with  Clatide,  which  produced  the 
conversion  of  Mile.  Duras,  ohlig-ed  him  to  confess,  that,  by  the  Protestant 
rule,  <'  every  iirtis;in  ;uul  hvisbaiulman  may  and  ought  to  beheve  that  he  can 
understand  tiie  Sciipturcs  better  than  all  the  fathers  and  doctors  of  the  church, 
ancient  and  modern,  put  toyelhcr. " 


Letter,  X  5^5 

the  societ)*;  insomuch  that  I  find  myself  obliged  to  remind  them 
of  the  terms  on  which  we  mutually  entered  upon  this  corres- 
pondence, namely,  that  each  one  should  be  at  perfect  lil>ertv  to 
express  his  sentiments  on  the  important  subject  under  consider- 
ation, without  complaint  or  offence  of  the  other.  'I'he  strength 
of  my  arguments  is  admitted  by  you  all:  yet  you  all  Ijring  in- 
vincible objections,  as  you  consider  them,  from  Scripture  and 
other  sources,  against  them.  I  think  it  will  render  our  contro- 
versy more  simple  and  clear,  if,  with  your  permission,  I  defer 
answering  these,  till  after  I  have  said  all  that  I  have  to  sav  con- 
cerning the  Catholic  rule  of  faith. 

The  Catholic  rule  of  faith,  as  I  stated  before,  is  not  merely 
the  xvritten  Word  of  God^  but  the  whole  Word  ofGod^  both  xvrit- 
ten  and  unwritten  ;  in  other  words,  Scripture  and  tradition^  and 
these  propounded  and  explained  by  the  Catholic  church*  This 
implies  that  we  have  a  tzuo-fold  rule^  or  laiv^  and  that  we  have 
an  interpreter^  or  judge  to  explain  it^  and  to  decide  upon  it  in  all 
doubtful  points. 

I.  I  enter  upon  this  subject  with  observing  that  all  xvritten 
hnvs  necessarily  suppose  the  existence  of  unxvritten  laxvs^  and 
indeed  depend  upon  them  for  their  force  and  authority.       Not 
to  run  into  the  depths  of  ethics  and  metaphysics  on  this  subject, 
}  ou  know,  dear  sir,  that,  in  this   kingdom,  we  have  common  or 
unxvritten  laxv^  and  statute  or  xvritten  laxv^  both  of  them  binding; 
but  that  the  former  necessarily  precedes  the  latter.     The  legis- 
lature, for  example,  makes  a  written  statute ;  but  we  must  learn, 
before-hand,  from  the  common  law,  xvhat  constitutes  the  leg-isla- 
ture,  and  we  must  also  have  learnt  from  the  natural  and  the  di- 
vine laws,  that  the  legislature  is  to  be  obeyed  in  all  things  xvhich 
these  do  not  render  unlaxvfuL  "  The  municipal  law  of  England," 
sa}s  judge  Blackstone,  "  may  be  divided  intoi^.v  Non  Scripta^ 
the  unwritten  or  common  law,  and  the  Lex  Scripta^  or  statute 
law."=^  He  afterwards  calls  the  common  law,  "  the  first  ground 
and  chief  comer-stone  of  the  laws  of  England."!     "  If,"  conti- 
nues he,  "  the  question  arises,  hoxv  these  customs  or  maxims  are 
to  be  knoxvn^  and  byxvhom  their  validity  is  to  be  determined?  The 
answer  is,  by  the  judges  in  the  several  courts  ofjustice.      They 
are  the  depositaries  oj'  the  laxvs^  the  living  oracles^  who  must 
decide  in  all  cases  of  doubt ^  and  who  are  bound  by  oath  to  decide 
according  to  the  law  of  the  land.":}:     So  absurd  is  the  idea  of 
binding  mankind  by  written  laws,  without  laying  an  adequate 
foundation  for  the  authority  of  those  laws,  and  without  consti- 
tuting living  judges  to  decide  upon  them ! 

*  Comment,  on  tlie  I,aws,  Introduct.  sect.  3. 

t  Ibid.  p.  73,  8th  edit.  t  Ibid.  p.  69. 


54  Letter  X. 

Neither  has  the  divine  wisdom,  in  founding  the  spiritual 
kingdom  of  his  church,  acted  in  that  inconsistent  manner.  The 
Almighty  did  not  send  a  Book,  the  New  Testament,  to  Chris- 
tians, and,  without  so  much  as  establishing  the  authority  of  that 
Book,  leave  them  to  interpret  it,  till  the  end  of  time,  each  one 
according  to  his  ovm  opinions  or  prejudices.  But  our  blessed 
Master  and  legislator,  Jesus  Christ,  having  first  demonstrated 
his  own  divine  legation  from  his  heavenly  Father,  by  undenia- 
ble miracles,  commissioned  his  chosen  apostles,  by  word  oj 
mouthy  to  proclaim  and  explain,  hy  word  of  mouth^Yns  doctrines 
and  precepts  to  all  nations,  promising  to  be  with  them,  in  the 
execution  of  this  office  of  his  heralds  and  judges,  even  to  the  end 
of  the  world.  This  implies  the  power  he  had  given  them,  of 
ardaining  successors  in  this  office,  as  they  themselves  were  only 
:o  live  the  ordinary  term  of  human  life.  True  it  is,  that  dur- 
ing the  execution  of  their  commission,  he  inspired  some  of  them 
and  their  disciples  to  write  certain  parts  of  these  doctrines  and 
precepts,  namely,  the  canonical  Gospels  and  Epistles,  which 
they  addressed,  for  the  most  part,  to  particular  persons, 
and  on  particular  occasions  ;  but  these  inspired  writings  by  no 
means  rendered  void  Christ's  commission  to  the  apostles  and 
their  successors,  oi preaching'  and  explamg  his  zvord  to  the  na- 
tions, or  his  promise  of  beiiig  with  them  till  the  end  of  time* 
On  the  contrary,  the  inspiration  of  these  very  writings,  is  not 
otherwise  known,  than  by  the  viva  voce  evidence  of  these  de- 
positaries and  judges  of  the  revealed  truths.  This  analy- 
sis of  revealed  religion,  so  conformable  to  reason  and  the  civil 
constitution  of  our  country,  is  proved  to  be  true,  by  the  written 
Word  itself — by  the  tradition  and  conduct  of  the  apostles — and 
by  the  constant  testimony  and  practice  of  the  fathers  and  doc- 
tors of  the  church,  in  all  ages. 

II.  Nothing  then,  dear  sir,  is  further  from  the  doctrine  and 
practice  of  the  Catholic  church  than  to  slight  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures. So  far  from  this,  she  had  religiously  preserved  and 
perpetuated  them,  from  age  to  age,  during  almost  fifteen  hun- 
dred years,  before  Protestants  existed.  She  has  consulted 
them,  and  confirmed  her  decrees  from  them,  in  her  several 
councils.  She  enjoins  her  pastors,  whose  business  it  is  to  in- 
struct the  faithful,  to  read  and  study  them  without  intermis- 
sion, knowing,  that  all  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God^ 
and  is  prof  table  for  doctrine^  for  reproof  for  correction^  for  hi' 
struction  in  righteousness,  2  Tim.  iii.  16.  Finally,  she  proves 
her  perpetual  right  to  announce  and  explain  the  truths  and  pre- 
cepts of  her  divine   Founder,  by  several  of  the  strongest  and 


Letter  X.  55 

clearest  passages  contained  in  Holy  Writ.*     Such,  for  exam- 
ple, is   the  last   commission  of  Christ,  alluded  to  above  :  Go 
ye  therefore  and  leach  all  nations^  baptizing'  them  in  the  name 
cf  the  Father^  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost:  teaching' 
them  to  observe  all  things  xvhatsoever  I  have  commanded  ijoiu 
Andlo  !  I  am  -with  you  all  days,  even  to  the  end  of  the  xvorUL 
Matt,  xxviii.  19,  20.     And  again,  Go  ye  into  all  the  ivorld,  aiul 
preach   the    Gospel  to  every  creature,     Mark  xvi.  15.     It   \n 
preaching  and  teaching  xho^n,  that  is  to  say  the  w/zwr/f/^/i  JFord^ 
which  Christ  has  appointed  to  be  the  general  method  of  propa- 
gating his  divine  truths  ;  and,  whereas  he  promises  to  be  7vit/t 
his  apostles  to  the  end  of  the  world:  this  proves  their  authority 
in  expounding,  and  that  the  same  was  to  descend  to  their  legiti- 
mate successors  in  the  sacred  ministiy,  since  they  themselves; 
were  only  to  live  the  ordinary  term  of  human  life.     In  like 
jnanner,   the   following  clear  texts  prove   the  authority  of  the 
apostles  and  their  sncctssor?,  forever  -,  that  is  to  say,  oi  the  ever- 
living  and  speaking  tribunal  of  the  church,  in  expounding  our 
Saviour's  doctrine;  /  will  pray  the  Father,  and  he  shall  give 
you  another  Comforter,  that  he  may  abide  with  you  for  ever, — 
The  Comforter,  which  is  the  Holy  Ghost  whom  the  Father  will 
send  in  my  name  ;  he  shall  teach  you  all  things,  and  bring  all  thingit 
to  your  remembrance,  whatsoever  I  have  said  unto  you,     John 
xiv.  16,  26.     St.  Paul,  speaking  of  both  the  unwritten  and  the 
written  Word,  puts  them  upon  a  level,  where  he  says,  There- 
fore, brethren,  stand  fast  and  hold  the  tradition  ye  have  been 
taught,  whether  by  word  or  our  Epistle,    2.  Thess.  v.  13.     Fi- 
nally, St.  Peter  pronounces,  that.  No  prophecy  of  Scripture  is 
of  any  private  interpretation,    2  Pet.  i.  20. 
.    III.  That  the  apostles,  and  the  apostolical  men,  whom  they 
formed,  followed  this  method  prescribed  by  their  Master,  is 
unquestionable ;  and  we  have  positive  proofs  from  Scripture, 
as  well  as  from  ecclesiastical  history^,  that  they   did  so.     St. 
Mark,  after  recording  the  above  cited  admonition  oi preaching 
the  Gospel,  which    Christ  left  to  his  apostles,  adds.   And  they 
went  forth  and  preached  every  where ;  the  Lord  working  with 
them,  and  confirming  the  word  with  signis  following,     Mark 
xvi.  20.     St.  Peter  preached  throughout  Judea,  and  Syria,  and 
last  of  all  in  Italy  and  at  Rome  ;   St.  Paul,  throughout  Lesser 
Asia,    Greece,    and     as    far   as    Spain  ;    St.     Andrew    pene- 
trated into  Scythia ;  St.  Thomas  and  St.  Bartholomev/  into  Par- 
thia  and  India,  and  so  of  the   others  ;  everj^  where  concerting 
and  instructing  thousands,  by  xvord  of  mouth  ;  founding  churches, 

•  St.  Austin  uses  this  ar^ment  against  the  Donatists,  •«  In  Scripturis  tli^ 
cimus  Christum  in  Scripturis  discimus,  Ecclesiam  Si  Christum  teneatis,  q«iitr« 
Ecclesiam  non  tenetis." 


56  Letter  X, 

and  ordaining  bishops  and  priests  to  do  the  same.*  If  any 
of  them  wrote,  it  was  on  some  particular  occasion,  and,  for 
the  most  part,  to  a  particular  person  or  congregation,  without 
either  giving  directions,  cr  providing  means  of  communicating 
their  Epistles  or  their  Gospels  to  the  rest  of  the  Christians 
throughout  the  world.  Hence,  it  happened,  as  I  have  before 
remarked,  that  it  was  not  till  the  end  of  the  fourth  century,  that 
the  canon  of  Holy  Scriptures  was  absolutely  settled  as  it  now 
stands.  True  it  is,  that  the  apostles,  before  they  separated  to 
preach  the  Gospel  to  different  nations,  agreed  upon  a  short  sym- 
bol  or  profession  of  faith,  called  The  Apostles^  Creed  \  but  even 
this  they  did  not  commit  to  writing  :f  and  whereas  they  made 
this,  among  other  articles  of  it,  /  believe  in  the  Holy  Church^\ 
they  made  no  mention  at  all  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  This  cir- 
cumstance confirms  what  their  example  proves,  that  the  Chris- 
tian doctrine  and  discipline  might  have  been  propagated  and 
preserved  by  the  unwritten  Word^  or  tradition,  joined  with  the 
authority  of  the  church,  though  the  Scriptures  had  not  beeo 
composed ;  however  profitable  these  most  certainly  dLYcfor  doc* 
trine,  for  reproof  for  correction,  and  for  instruction  in  right" 
eoiisness,  2  Tim.  iii.  16.  I  have  already  quoted  one  of  the 
ornaments  of  your  church,  who  says,  that  "the  canonical  Epis» 
ties"  (and  he  might  have  added  the  Gospels)  "  are  not  regular 
treatises  upon  the  Christian  religion  j"§  and  I  shall  have  occa- 
sion to  show,  from  an  ancient  father,  that  this  religion  did  pre* 
vail  and  flourish  soon  after  the  age  of  the  apostles,* among  na- 
tions which  did  not  even  know  the  use  of  letters. 

IV.  However  light  Protestants  of  this  age  may  make  of  the 
ancient  fathers,  as  theological  authorities ^\\  they  cannot  object 
to  them  ^s  faithful  witnesses  of  the  doctrine  and  discipline  of 
the  church  in  their  respective  times.  It  is  chiefly  in  the  latter 
character  that  I  am  going  to  bring  a  certain  number  of  them 

•  Tliey  ordained  them  pritsts  m  every  church.  Acts  xiv.  22.  For  this  cause  1 
left  thee  in  Crete,  that  thou  shouldst  set  in  order  the  thinc;s  that  are  wantingy  and 
thouldst  ordain  priests  in  every  city,  as  I  had  appointed  thee.  Tit.  i.  5.  The 
thini^H  that  thou  hast  heard  of  me  among  many  witnesses,  tht  same  commit  tftoa 
to  those  faithful  men,  who  shall  be  able  to  teach  others  also.  2.  Tim.  ii.  2. 

j-  Rtimn  inter  Opera  llieron. 

t  The  title  Catholic  was  afterwards  added,  when  heresies  increased. 

4  Klements  of  Theolog-y,  vol.  ii.  •• 

D  Jewel,  Andrews,  Hooker,  Morton,  Pearson,  and  other  Protestant  divines 
of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  laboured  hard  to  press  the  fathers 
into  their  service  ;  but  witl\  such  bad  success,  that  the  succeeding'  controver- 
sialists g-ave  them  up  in  dcsjniir.  The  Icunicd  Protestant,  Causabon,  con- 
fes.scd  that  the  fathers  were  all  on  tlie  Catholic  side  ;  the  equally  learned 
Obrccht  testifies  that,  in  reading  their  works,  <*  he  was  frequently  provoked 
to  throw  them  on  the  ground,  finding-  tliem  so  full  of  Popery  ;"  while  Midtlle- 
ton  heaps  every  kind  of  obloquy  upon  tliem.  : 


Letter  X.  $f 

forward,  namely,  to  prove  that  during  the  five  first  ages  of  the 
church,  no  less  than  in  the  subsequent  ages,  the  unwritten  Word, 
or  tradition,  was  held  in  equal  estimation  by  her  with  the  Scrip- 
ture itself,  and  that  she  claimed  a  divine  right  of  propounding 
and  explaining  them  both. 

I  begin  with  the  disciple  of  the  apostles,  St.  Ignatius,  bishop 
of  Antioch  ;  it  is  recorded  of  him  that,  in  his  passage  to  Rome, 
where  he  was  sentenced  to  be  devoured  by  wild  beasts,  he  ex- 
horted the  Christians,  who  got  access  to  him,  "to  guard  them- 
selves against  the  rising  heresies,  and  to  adhere  with  the  ut- 
most firmness  to  the  tradition  of  the  apostles,''''^  The  same 
sentiments  appear  in  this  saint's  Epistles,  and  also  in  those  of  his 
fellow  martyr,  St.  Polycarp,  the  angel  of  the  church  of  Smyrna,] 

One  of  the  disciples  of  the  last  mentioned  holy  bishop  was 
St.  Irenaeus,  who  passing  into  Gaul,  became  bishop  of  Lyons. 
Hehas  left  twelve  books  against  the  heresies  of  his  time,  which  a- 
bound  with  testimonies  to  the  present  purpose ;  some  few  of  which 
I  shall  here  insert. — He  writes,  "  Nothing  is  easier  to  those  who 
seek  for  the  truth,  than  to  remark,  in  every  church,  the  tradi- 
tion^ which  the  apostles  have  manifested  to  all  the  world.  We 
can  name  the  bishops  appointed  by  the  apostles  in  the 
several  churches,  and  the  successors  of  those  bishops  down 
to  our  own  time,  none  of  whom  ever  taught  or  heard  of 
such  dnctrinp<!  a«?  tViptf  Vipretics  dream  of":}:  This  holy 
father  emphatically  affirms  that,  "  In  explaining  the  Scriptures, 
Christians  are  to  attend  to  the  pastors  of  the  churchy  who,  by 
the  ordinance  of  God,  have  received  the  inheritance  of  truth^ 
with  the  succession  of  their  Sees."§  He  adds,  "  The  tongues 
of  nations  vary,  but  the  virtue  of  tradition  is  one  and  the  came 
every  where  ;  nor  do  the  churches  in  Germany  believe  or  teach 
differently  from  those  in  Spain,  Gaul,  the  East,  Egypt,  or  Ly- 
bia."|| — "Since  it  would  be  tedious  to  enumerate  the  succes- 
sion of  all  the  churches,  we  appeal  to  the  faith  and  tradition  of 
the  greatest,  most  ancient,  and  best  known  church,  that  of  Rome, 
founded  by  the  apostles,  SS.  Peter  and  Paul ;  for  with  this 
church  all  others  agree,  in  as  much  as  in  her  is  preserved  the 
tradition  which  comes  down  from  the  apostles."^ — "  SUPPOS- 
ING THE  APOSTLES  HAD  NOT  LEFT  US  THE 
SCRIPTURES,  OUGHT  NOT  WE  STILL  TO  HAVE 
FOLLOWED  THE  ORDINANCE  OF  TRADITION, 
which  they  consigned  to  those  to  whom  they  committed  the 
churches  ?  It  is  this  ordinance  of  tradition  which  many  nations 
of  barbarians,  believing  in  Christ,  follow,  without  tht  use  of 
letters  or  ink."=»«=* 

•  Euseb.  Hist.  1.  iii.  c.  30.       f  Revel,  ii.  8.      t  Advers.  Hjcres.  1.  iii.  c.  5. 
§L.  iy.  C.43.  JL.i.c.3.  lL.m.c.2  ••L.iy.c.64. 

H  ^ 


58  Letter  X, 

TertuUian,  who  flourished  two  hundred  years  after  the  Chris- 
tian era,  among  his  other  works,  has  left  us  one  of  the  same 
nature,  and  almost  the  same  title  with  that  last  cited.  In  this, 
bpeaking  of  the  contemporary  heretics,  he  says,  "They  meddle 
with  the  Scriptures,  and  adduce  arguments  from  them :  for, 
in  treating  of  faith,  they  pretend  that  they  ought  not  to  argue 
upon  any  other  ground  than  the  written  documents  of  faith: 
thus  they  weary  the  firm,  catch  the  weak,  and  fill  the  middle 
sort  with  doubt.  We  begin,  therefore,  with  laying  down  as  a 
maxim,  that  these  men  ought  not  to  be  allowed  to  argue  at  all 
from  scripture.  In  fact,  these  disputes  about  the  sense  of  Scrip- 
ture have  generally  no  other  effect  than  to  disorder  either  the 
stomach  or  the  brain.  It  is,  therefore,  the  wrong  method  to 
appeal  to  the  Scriptures,  since  these  afford  either  no  decision, 
or,  at  most,  only  a  doubtful  one.  And  even  if  this  were  not 
the  case,  still,  in  appealing  to  Scripture,  the  natural  order  of 
things  requires  that  we  should  first  inquire  to  whom  the  Scrip 
tures  belong?  From  whom,  and  by  whom,  and  on  what  occa- 
sion, and  to  whom,  that  tradition  was  delivered  by  which  we 
became  Christians?  For  where  the  truth  of  Christian  discipline 
and  faith  is  found,  there  is  the  truth  of  Scripture,  and  of  the 
interpretation  of  it,  and  of  all  Christian  traditions."'-^  He  else- 
v/here  says,  "that  doctrine  is  evidently  true  which  was  first  de- 
livered: on  the  contrary,  that  is  false  wKicK  i«  of  n  later  date- 
This  maxim  stands  immoveable  against  the  attempts  of  all  late 
heresies.  Let  such  then  produce  the  origin  of  thair  churches: 
let  them  show  the  succession  of  their  bishops  from  the  apostles, 
or  their  disciples. — If  you  live  near  Italy,  you  see  before  your 
eyes  the  Roman  church:  happy  church!  to  which  the  apostles 
have  left  the  inheritance  of  their  doctrine  with  their  blood ! 
Where  Peter  was  crucified,  like  his  Master;  where  Paul  was 
beheaded,  like  the  Baptist! — If  this  be  so,  it  is  plain,  as  we 
have  said,  that  heretics  are  not  to  be  allowed  to  appeal  to  Scrip- 
ture, since  they  have  no  claim  to  it. — Hence  it  is  proper  to  ad- 
dress them  as  follows: — Who  are  you?  Whence  do  you  come? 
What  business  have  you  strangers  with  my  property?  By  what 
right  are  you^  Marcion^  felling  my  trees?  By  what  authority 
arc  you^  Valenfnie^  turning  the  course  of  my  streams?  Under 
what  pretence  are  you^  Apelles^  removiiig  my  land-marks?  The 
estate  is  mine:  I  have  the  ancient^  the  priAT  possession  of  it,  I 
have  the  title  deeds  delivered  to  me  by  the  original  pi'oprietors. 
I  am  the  heir  of  the  apostles;  they  have  made  their  will  in  my 
favour;  zvhile  theij  disinherited  and  cast  you  off^  as  strangers 
and  enemies.'']      In  another  of  his  works,|  this  eloquent  father 

♦pvaescrjp.  Advcrs.  Hacres.  edit.  Rhenan,  pp.  36,  37. 
+    bid.  \  Dc  Corona  Milit. 


Letter  X.  5S 

proves,  at  great  length,  the  absolute  necessity  of  admitting  tra- 
dition.f  no  less  than  Scripture  as  the  rule  of  faith,  inasmuch  as 
many  important  points  which  he  mentions,  cannot  be  proved 
without  it. 

I  pass  by  other  shining  lights  of  the  third  century,  such  as 
St.  Clement  of  Alexandria,  St.  Cyprian,  Origen,  &c.  all  of 
whom  place  apostolical  tradition  on  a  level  with  Scripture,  and 
describe  the  church  as  the  ex})ounder  of  them  both:  I  must, 
however,  give  the  following  words,  from  the  last  named  great 
Biblical  scholar.  He  says,  ^'  We  are  not  to  credit  those,  who, 
by  citing  real  canonical  Scripture,  seem  to  ^^yy  behold  the  Word 
is  in  your  houses:  for  we  are  not  to  desert  owe  first  ecclesiastu 
cal  traditio?iy  nor  to  believe  otherwise  than  as  the  churches  of 
God  have,  in  their  perpetual  succession,  delivered  to  us." 

Among  the  numerous  and  illustrious  witnesses  of  the  fourth 
age,  I  shall  be  content  with  citing  St.  Basil  and  St  Epiphanius. 
The  former  says,  "There  are  many  doctrines  preserved  and 
preached  in  the  church,  derived  partly  from  written  documents, 
partly  from  apostolical  tradition^  which  have  equally  the  same 
force  in  religion,  and  which  no  one  contradicts  who  has  the  least 
knowledge  of  the  Christian  laws."*  The  latter  of  these  fathers^ 
says,  with  equal  brevity  and  force,  "  We  must  make  use  of  tradi- 
tion: for  all  things  are  not  to  be  found  in  Scripture."! 

St.  John  Chrysostom  flourished  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifth 
century,  who,  though  he  strongly  recommends  the  reading  of 
the  holy  Scriptures,  yet,  expounding  the  text,  2  Thess.  ii.  14. 
says,  "  Hence  it  is  plain  that  the  apostles  did  not  deliver  to 
us  every  thing  by  their   Epistles,  but   many  things   without 
writing.     These  are  equally  worthy  of  belief.      Hence,  let  us 
regard  the  tradition  of  the  churcli,  as  the  subject  of  our  belief. 
Such  and  such  a  thing  is  a  tradition:  seek  no  farther, ^"^ — It 
would  fill  a  large  volume  to  transcribe  all  the  passages  which 
occur  in  the  works  of  the  great  St.  Austin,  in  proof  of  the 
Catholic  rule,  and  the  authority  of  the  church  in  making  use 
of  it:  let  therefore  two  or  three  of  them  speak  for  the  rest.—  . 
"To  attain  to  the  truth  of  the  Scriptures^'*  he  says,  "we  must 
follow  the  sense  of  them  entertained  by  the  universal  church,  to 
which  the  Scriptures  themselves  bear  testimony.   True  it  is  the 
Scriptures  themselves  cannot  deceive  us ;  nevertheless,  to  pre- 
vent our  being  deceived  in  the  question  we  examine  by  them,  it 
is  necessary"  we  should  advise  with  that  church,  which  these  cer- 
tainly and  evidently  point  out  to  us.":j: — "This  ("the  unlawful- 
ness of  rebaptizing  heretics)  is  not  evidently  reaa  either  by  you 

•In  Lib.  de  Spir.  Sane.  -f  De  H»res.  N.  6 

♦:  L.  i.  contra  Crescon. 


60  Letter  X, 

or  by  me ;  nevertheless,  if  there  were  any  wise  man,  to  whom 
Christ  had  borne  testimony,  and  whom  he  had  appointed  to  be 
consulted  on  the  question,  we  could  not  fail  to  do  so:  now- 
Christ  bears  testimony  to  his  church.  Whoever,  therefore,  re- 
fuses to  follow  the  practice  of  the  church  resists  Christ  him- 
self, who  by  his  testimony  recommends  this  church."*  Treat- 
ing elsewhere,  on  the  same  subject,  he  says,  *'The  apostles, 
indeed,  have  prescribed  nothing  about  this;  but  the  custom 
must  be  considered  as  derived  from  their  tradition,  since  there 
are  many  things,  observed  by  the  universal  church,  which  are 
justly  held  to  have  been  appointed  by  the  apostles,  though  they 
are  not  written."f — It  seems  doing  an  injury  to  St  Vincent  of 
Lerins,  who  lived  at  the  end  of  the  fifth  century,  to  quote  a 
part  of  his  celebrated  Commonitorium^  when  the  whole  of  it  is  so 
admirably  calculated  to  refute  the  false  rule  of  heretics,  condemn- 
ed in  the  foregoing  testimonies,  and  to  prove  the  Catholic  rule, 
here  laid  down :  still  I  can  only  transcribe  a  very  small  portion 
of  it.  ^'It  is  asked,"  says  this  father,  "as  the  Scripture  is  per- 
fect, what  need  is  there  of  the  authority  of  church  doctrine  ? 
The  reason  is  because  the  Scripture,  being  so  profoundly  deep, 
is  not  understood  by  all  persons  in  the  same  sense,  but  differ- 
ent persons  explain  it  different  ways,  so  that  there  are  almost 
as  many  meanings  as  there  are  readers  of  it.  Novation  inter- 
prets it  in  one  sense,  Photinas  in  another,  Arius,  &c.  in  an- 
other. Therefore  it  is  requisite  that  the  true  road  of  expound- 
ing the  prophets  and  apostles  must  be  marked  out,  according 
to  the  ecclesiastical  Catholic  line. 

"  It  never  was,  is,  or  will  be  lawful  for  Catholic  Christians 
to  teach  any  doctrine,  except  that  which  they  once  received  ? 
and  it  ever  was,  is,  and  will  be  their  duty  to  condemn  those  who 
do  so. — Do  the  heretics  then  appeal  to  the  Scriptures  ?  Cer- 
'tainly  they  do,  and  this  with  the  utmost  confidence.  You  will 
see  them  running  hastily  through  the  different  books  of  Holy 
Writ,  those  of  Moses,  Kings,  the  Psalms,  the  Gospels,  &c. 
At  home  and  abroad,  in  their  discourses  and  in  their  writings, 
they  hardly  produce  a  sentence  which  is  not  larded  with  the 
words  of  Scripture,  &c.  ;  but  they  are  so  much  the  more  to  be 
dreaded,  as  they  conceal  themselves  under  the  veil  of  the  divine 
laws.  Let  us,  however,  remember,  that  Satan  transformed 
himself  into  an  angel  of  light. — If  he  could  tiuji  the  Scriptures 
against  the  Lord  of  Majesty,  what  use  may  he  not  make  of 
them  against  us  poor  mortals  ! — If  then  Satan  and  his  disciples, 
the  heretics,  are  capable  of  thus  perverting  holy  Scripture,  how 
are  Catholics  the  children  of  the  church,  to  make  use  of  them, 

•  De  Util.  Credend.  t  ^^  ^*P*-  contra  Donat.  1.  r. 


Letter  XL  61 

so  as  to  discern  truth  from  falsehood  ?  They  must  carefully 
observe  the  rule  laid  down  at  the  beginning  of  this  treatise  by 
the  holvand  learned  men  I  referred  to :  THEY  ARE  TO  IN. 
TERPRET  THE  DIVINE  TEXT,  ACCORDING  TO 
THE  TRADITION  OF  THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH."* 
It  would  be  as  easy  to  prove  this  rule  of  faith  from  the  fa- 
thers of  the  sixth  as  the  former  centuries,  particularly  from  St. 
Gregory  the  great,  that  holy  Pope,  who  at  the  close  of  this  cen- 
tury, sent  missionaries  from  Rome  to  convert  our  Pagan  ances- 
^  tors  :  but,  I  am  sure,  you  will  think  that  evidence  enough  has 
been  brought  to  show  that  the  ancient  fathers  of  the  church, 
from  the  very  time  of  the  apostles,  held  this  whole  rule  offaith^ 
namely,  the  word  of  God  innvrkten  as  well  as  zvrittefi^  together 
with  the  livings  speaking  tribunal  of  the  church  to  preserve  and 
interpret  both  of  them. 

I  am,  &c. 

J.M. 


LETTER  XI. 

TO  JAMES  BROWN,  Esq.  ^c. 

THE  TRUE  RULE. 
Dear  Sir, 

THE  all-importance  of  determining  with  ourselves  which  is 
the  right  rule  or  method  of  discovering  religious  truth  must  be 
admitted  by  all  thinking  Christians  ;  as  it  is  evident  that  this 
rule  alone  can  conduct  them  to  it,  and  that  a  false  rule  is  capa- 
ble of  conducting  them  into  all  sorts  of  errors.  It  is  equally 
clear  why  all  those  who  are  bent  upon  deserting  the  Catholic 
church,  reject  her  rule,  that  of  the  zuhole  word  of  God;  toge- 
ther with  her  living  authority  in  explaining  it :  for,  while  this 
rule  and  this  authority  are  acknowledged,  there  can  be  no  he- 
resy or  schism  among  Christians,  as  whatever  points  of  reli- 
gion are  not  clear  from  Scripture  are  supplied  and  illustrated 
by  tradition ;  and  as  the  pastors  of  the  church,  who  possess  that 

•  Vincent  Lerlns  Commonit.     Advers.     Hser.  edit.    Baluz.     An  English 
translation  of  this  little  work  has  lately  been  published. 


62  Letter  XL 

authority^  are  always  living  and  ready  to  declare  what  is  the 
sense  of  Scripture,  and  what  the  tradition  on  each  contested 
point  which  they  have  received  in  succession  from  the  apos- 
tles. The  only  resource,  therefore,  of  persons  resolved  to  fol- 
low their  own  or  their  forefathers'  particular  opinions  or  prac- 
tices, in  matters  of  religion,  with  the  exception  of  the  enthusi- 
ast, has  been  in  all  times,  both  ancient  and  modem,  to  appeal 
to  mere  Scripture,  which  being  a  dead  letter^  leaves  them  at 
liberty  to  explain  it  as  they  will. 

I.  And  yet,  with  all  their  repugnance  to  tradition  and  church 
lauthority,  ]Protestants  have  found  them-jelves  absolutely  obliged, 
iin  many  instances,  to  admit  of  them  both. — It  has  been  demon- 
strated above,  that  they  are  obliged  to  admit  of  tradition,  in  or- 
der to  admit  of  Scripture  itself.  Without  this,  they  can  neither 
know  that  there  are  any  writings  at  all  dictated  by  God's  inspi- 
ration ;  nor  which  these  writings  are  in  particular  ;*  nor  what 
versions,  or  publication  of  them  are  genuine.  But,  as  this  mat- 
ter has  been  sufficiently  elucidated,  I  proceed  to  other  points 
of  religion,  which  Protestants  receive,  either  without  the  au- 
thority of  Scripture,  or  in  opposition  to  the  letter  of  it. 

The  first  precept  in  the  Bible,  is  that  of  sanctifying  the  seventh 
day:  God  blessed  the  SEVENTH  DAY,  and  sanctified  it. 
Gen.  ii.  3.  This  precept  was  confirmed  by  God,  in  the  Ten 
Commandments :  Remember  the  Sabbath  day  to  keep  it  holy. 
The  SEVENTH  DAY  is  the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord  thy  God. 
Exod.  XX.  On  the  other  hand,  Christ  declares  thafr  he  is  720^ 
i:ome  to  destroy  the  law  but  to  fulfil  it.  Mat.  v.  17.  He  him- 
self observed  the  Sabbath :  and^  as  his  custom  was,  he  went 
into  the  synagog-ue  on  the  Sabbath  day  :  Luke  iv.  16.  His  dis- 
ciples likewise  observed  it,  after  his  death :  They  rested  on  the 
Sabbath  day  according  to  the  commandment.  Luke  xxiii.  56. 
Yet,  with  all  this  weight  of  Scripture  authority  for  keeping  the 
Sabbath  or  seventh  day  holy,  Protestants,  of  all  denominations, 
make  this  a  profane  day^  and  transfer  the  obligation  of  it  to  the 
first  day  of  the  xveek^  or  the  Sunday,  Now  what  authority 
have  they  for  doing  this  ?  None  at  all,  but  the  unwritten  Wordy 
or  tradition  of  the  Catholic  church,  which  declares  that  the 
apostles  made  the  change  in  honour  of  Christ's  resurrection^ 
and  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  on  that  day  of  the  week. 
Then,  with  respect  to  the  manner  of  keeping  that  day  holy, 
their   universal  doctrine   and  practice  are  no  less  at  variance 

•Amontjst  all  the  learned  Protestants  of  this  age,  Dr.  Porteus  is  the  only 
one  wiio  pretends  to  discern  Scripture,  "partly  on  account  of  its  own  reason- 
ableness, and  tl>c  cli;ir;icter.s  of  divine  visdom  in  it."  Brief  Confut.  p.  9.  I 
could  have  wished  to  ask  his  lordship,  wliether  it  is  by  these  characters  that 
be  iuLk  discovered  tlic  Canticle  or  S(j>ig  nf  iSuluinon  to  be  inspired  bcripture  ? 


Letter  XL  63 

with  the  Sacred  Text.     The  Ahnighty  says,  "  From  even  unto 
even  shall  you  celebrate  your  Sabbath,"  Levit.  xxiii.  32,  which 
is  the  practice  of  the  Jeus  down  to  the   present  time  ;  but  not 
of  any  Protestants  that  ever  I  heard  of.     Again,  it  is  declared 
in  Scripture  to  be  unlawful  to  dress  victuals  on  that  day,  Exod. 
xvi.  23,  or  even  to  make  a  fire,  ExO(i,xxxv,   3.     Again,  where 
is  there  a  precept  in  the  whole  Scripture  more  express  than  that 
against  eating  blood  ?  God  said  to  Noah,  Every  moving'  thing' 
that  livetk   shall  be  meat  to  you — hut  Jiesh  with  the  life  thereof 
which  is  the  blood  thereof  shall  you  not  eat,  Gen.  ix.  4,     This 
])rohibition  we  know  was  confirmed  by  Moses,  Levitt  xvii.  11, 
Deut,  xii.  23,  and  by  the  apostles,  and  was   imposed  upon  the 
<ientiles,who  were  converted  to  the  faith.  Acts,  xv.  20.  Never- 
theless, where  is  the  religious  Protestant  who  scruples   to   eat 
gravy  with  his  meat,  or  puddings  made  of  blood  ?   At  the  same 
time  if  he  be  asked,  U/)on  ruhat  authority  do  you  act  in  contra- 
diction to  the  express  words  of  both  the  Old  and  the  New  Tes- 
tament ?  he  can  find  no  other  answer  than  that  he  has  learned 
from  the  traditio?i  oj  the  church,  that  the  prohibition  was  only 
temporary. — I  will  confine  myself  to  one  more  instance  of  Pro- 
testants abandoning  their  own  rule,  that  of  Scripture  alone,  tc 
follow  ours,  of  Scripture  explained  by  tradition.     If  any  intelli- 
gent Pagan,whohad  carefully  perused  the  New  Testament,  wen 
asked,  which  of  the  ordinances  mentioned  in  it,  is  most  explicitly 
and  strictly  enjoined  ?   I  make  no  doubt  but  he  would  answei 
that  it  is,  The  washing  of  feet.     To  convince  yourself  of  this, 
be  pleased  to  read  the  first  seventeen  verses  of  St.  John,  c.  xiii. 
Observe  the  motive  assigned  for  Christ's  performing  the  cere- 
mony, there  recorded;   namely,  his  "love  for  his  disciples  :" 
next  the  time  of  his  performing  it ;  namely,  when  he  was  about 
to  depart  out  of  this  world  :  then  the  stress  he  lays  upon  it,   in 
what  he  said  to  Peter,  If  I  wash    thee  not  thou  hast   no  party 
with  me:  finally,  his  injunction,  at  the   conclusion  of  it,  If  I 
your  Lord  and  Master,  have  washed  your  feet,  ye  also  ought 
to  xvash  one  another''s  feet,     I  now  ask,  on  what  pretence  car 
those  who  profess  to  make  Scripture  alone  the  rule  of  their  re- 
ligion, totally  disregard  this  institution  and  precept  ?  Had  this 
ceremony  been  observed  in  the  church  when  Luther  and  the 
other  first  Protestants  began  to  dogmatize,   there   is  no  doubt 
but  they  would  have  retained  it :  but,  having  learnt  from  her 
that  it  was  only  figurative,  they  acquiesced    in  this   decision, 
contrary  to  what  appears  to  be  the  plain  sense  of  Scripture. 

II.  But  I  asserted  that  Protestants  find  themselves  obliged 
not  only  to  adopt  the  rule  of  our  church,  on  many  the  most  im- 
portant subjects,  but  also  to  claim  her  authority. "  It  is  true,  as 


64  Letter  XL 

a  lute  dignitiry  of  the  establishment  observes,*  that,  ""When 
Protestants  first  withdrew  from  the  communion  of  the  church 
of  Rome,  the  principles  they  went  upon  were  such  as  these : 
Christ,  by  his  gospel,  hath  called  all  men  to  the  liberty^  the  glo- 
rious liberty,  of  the  sons  of  God,  and  restored  them  to  the  pri- 
vilege of  working  out  their  own  salvation  by  their  own  under- 
standing and  endeavours.  For  this  work,  sufficient  means  are 
afforded  in  the  Scriptures,  without  having  recourse  to  the  doc- 
trines and  commandments  of  men.  Consequently,  faith  and 
conscience,  having  no  dependence  on  man's  laws,  are  not  to  be 
compelled  by  man's  authority." — What  now  was  the  conse- 
quence of  this  fundamental  rule  of  Protestantism?  Why,  that 
endless  variety  of  doctrines,  errors,  and  impieties,  mention- 
ed above,  followed  by  those  tumults,  wars,  rebellions,  and  an- 
archy, with  which  the  history  of  every  country  is  filled,  which 
embraced  the  new  religion.  It  is  readily  supposed  that  the 
princes,  and  other  rulers  of  those  countries,  ecclesiastical  as 
well  as  civil,  however  hostile  they  might  be  to  the  ancient 
church,  would  wish  to  restrain  these  disorders,  and  make  their 
subjects  adopt  the  same  sentiments  with  themselves.  Hence, 
in  every  Protestant  state,  articles  of  religion,  and  confessions 
of  faith,  differing  from  one  another,  yet  each  one  agreeing  with 
the  opinion,  for  the  time  being,  of  those  princes  and  rulers, 
were  enacted  by  law,  and  enforced  by  excommunication,  de- 
privation, exile,  imprisonment,  torture,  and  death.  These  latter 
punishments  indeed,  however  frequently  they  were  ^exercised 
by  Protestants  against  Protestants,  as  well  as  against  Catholics, 
during  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,!  have  not  been 
resorted  to  during  the  last  hundred  years;  but  the  terrible  sen- 
tence of  excommunication,  which  includes  outlawry,  even  now 
ha'ngs  over  the  head  of  every  Protestant  bishop,  as  well  as  other 
clergyman,  in  this  country,:):  who  interpret  those  passages  of 
the  Gospel,  concerning  Jesus  Christ,  in  the  sense  which  it  ap- 
pears from  their  writings  a  number  of  them  entertain ;  and  none 
of  them  can  take  possession  of  a  living,  without  subscribing  the 
Thirty-nine  Articles,  and  publicly  declaring  his  unfeigned  as- 
sent and  consent  to  them,  and  to  every  thiiig  cojitained  in  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer.^     Thus,  by  adopting  a  false  rule  of 

•  Archdeacon  Blackburn  in  his  celebrated  Confessloqal,  p.  1. 

t  See  the  letter  on  the  Jiefurmatiun  and  on  Persecution,  in  Letters  to  a  Pre- 
hendarxf.  See  also  Neal's  History  of  the  Puritans,  Delaune's  Narrative,  Se- 
wel's  History  of  tlie  Quakers,  Sec. 

^  See  many  t  xcommunicatiiig'  canons,  and  particularly  one,  A.  D.  1640, 
ag-ainst  "tlie  damnable  and  cursed  heresy  of  Socinianism,"  as  it  is  termed,  ia 
Bishop  Sparrow's  (Collection. 

§  1st  Eli/,  cap.  2.— 14  Car.  ii.  c.  4.     Item  Canon  36  et  38. 


Letter  XL  isi 

religion,  thinking  Protestants  are  reduced  to  the  cruel  extremi- 
ty of  palpable  contradiction!  They  cannot  give  up  "the  glori- 
ous liberty,"  as  it  is  called  above,  of  explaining  the  Bil)le,  each 
one  for  himself,  without,  at  once,  giving  up  their  cause  to  the 
Catholics ;  and  they  cannot  adhere  to  it  w^ithout  many  of  the 
above  mentioned  fatal  consequences,  and  without  the  speedy 
dissolution  of  their  respective  churches.  Impatient  of  the  con- 
straint in  being  obliged  to  sign  articles  of  faith  which  they  do 
not  believe,  many  able  clergymen  of  the  establishment  have 
written  strongly  against  them,  and  have  even  petitioned  par- 
liament to  be  relieved  from  the  alleged  grievance  of  sub- 
scribing the  professed  doctrine  of  their  own  church.*  On  th^ 
other  hand,  the  legislature,  foreseeing  the  consequences  which 
would  result  from  the  removal  of  the  obligation,  have  always 
rejected  their  prayer:  and  the  judges  have  even  refused  to  ad- 
mit the  following  salvo  in  addition  to  the  subscription:  "I  as- 
sent and  consent  to  the  Articles  and  the  Book,  as  far  as  they  are 
agreeable  to  the  xvord  of  God,"*']  In  these  straits,  many  of  the 
most  able  as  well  as  the  most  respectable  of  the  established 
clerg)^,  have  been  reduced  to  such  sophistry  and  casuistry,  as 
to  move  the  pity  of  their  very  opponents.  One  of  these,  the 
Norrisian  professor  of  divinity  at  Cambridge,^:  as  one  way  of 
excusing  his  brethren  for  subscribing  articles  which  they  do 
not  believe  in,  cites  the  example  of  the  divines  of  (Tcneva, 
where,  he  says,  "  a  complete  tacit  reformation  seems  to  have 
taken  place.  The  Genevese  have  now,  in  fact,  quitted  their 
Calvinistic  doctrines,  though,  in  form^  the}'  retain  them.  — 
When  the  minister  is  admitted,  he  takes  an  oath  of  assent  to 
the  Scriptures,  and  professes  to  teach  them  according  to  the 
Catechism  of  Calvin;  but  this  last  clause  about  Calvin,  he  makefs 
a  separate  business^  speaking  lower,  or  altering  his  posture,  or 
speaking  after  a  considerable  interval. "§  Such  a  change  of 
posture,  or  tone  of  voice,  in  the  swearer,  our  learned  professor 
considers  as  sufficient  to  excuse  him  from  the  guilt  of  prevari- 
cation, in  swearing  contrary  to  the  plain  meaning  of  his  oath  I 
It  is  not,  however,  intimated  that  the  professor  himself  has  re- 
course to  this  expedient:  his  particular  system  is,  that  "the 
church  of  England,  like  that  of  Geneva,  has,  of  late,  undergone 
a  complete  tacit  reformation^^  and  hence  that  the  sense  of  its 
%•  ' 

•  There  was  such  a  petition,  slg-ned  by  a  great  number  of  clere^ymen,  and 
supported  by  many  others,  in  1772. 

f  See  Confessional,  p.  183. 

t  Lectures  in  Divinity,  delivered  in  the  university  of  Cambridge,  by  J.  Hey, 
D.  D.  as  Norrisian  professor,  1797,  vol.  ii.  p.  57. 

§  Ibid. 

8  Ibid.  p.  48,  (particularly  in  its  approach  to  Socinianism,  from  which  be 
•••amifies  *'  ■-  divided  only  by  a  few  •'unmeaning  words.") 

I 


6C  Letter  A/. 

articles  of  faith  is  to  be  determined  by  circumstance fsJ'^*  Thus 
he  adds  (referring,  I  presume,  to  the  statutes  of  King's  col- 
lege, Cambridge)  the  oath,  "  I  will  say  so  many  masses  fot 
the  soul  of  Henry  VI.,  may  come  to  mean,  I  will  perform  th^ 
religious  duties  required  of  me!!"f  The  celebrated  moralist, 
Dr.  Palcy,  justifies  a  departure  from  the  original  sense  of  the 
Articles  of  religion  subscribed,  by  an  INCONVENIENCE^ 
-which  is  manifest  beyond  all  doubt  I  !\  Archdeacon  Powell, 
master  of  St.  John's  college,  defends  the  English  clergy  from 
the  charge  of  subscribing  what  they  do  not  believe,  because,  he 
says,  "The  crime  is  impossible:  as  that  cannot  be  the  sense  of 
the  declaration  which  no  one  imagines  to  be  its  sense ;  nor  can 
diat  interpretation  be  erroneous  which  all  have  received!:}:  And 
y^et  such  prelates  as  Seeker,  Horseley,  Cleaver,  Pretyman,  with 
all  the  judges,  strongly  maintain  that  the  literal  meaning  of  the 
Articles  must  be  strictly  adhered  to ! 

I  could  cite  many  other  dignitaries,  or  other  leading  clergy- 
men, of  the  establishment,  and  nearly  the  whole  host  of  dis- 
senters, who  have  recourse  to  such  quibbles  and  evasions,  in 
order  to  get  rid  of  the  plain  sense  of  the  articles  and  cretds,  to 
which  they  have  solemnly  engaged  themselves  before  the  Crea- 
tor, as,  I  am  convinced  they  would  not  make  use  of  in  any  con- 
tract with  a  fellow  creature :  but  I  hasten  to  take  in  hand  the 
admired  Discourses  of  my  friend.  Dr.  Balguy.  He  was  the 
champion,  the  very  Achilles,  of  those  who  defended  the  sub^ 
ficription  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  against  the  •petitioners 
for  the  abrogation  of  it,  in  1772.  And  how  think  you,  dear 
sir,  did  he  defend  it?  Not  by  vindicating  the  truth  of  the  ar- 
ticles themselves,  much  less  by  any  of  the  quibbles  mentioned 
or  alluded  to  above ;  but  upon  the  principle,  that  an  exterior 
show  of  uniformity  in  the  ministers  of  religion  is  necessary  for 
the  support  of  it ;  and  that,  therefore,  they  ought  to  subscribe 
ind  teach  the  doctrine  prescribed  to  them  by  the  law,  whatever 
they  may  inwardly  think  of  it.  Thus  it  was  that  he  and  many 
of  his  friends  imagined  it  possible  to  unite  religious  liberty 
with  ecclesiastical  restrictions.  But  I  will  give  you  the  arch- 
deacon's ov.n  words,  in  one  of  his  charges  to  his  clergy.  "The 
articles,  we  will  say,  are  not  exactly  xuhat  we  might  zvish  them 
to  be.  Some  of  them  are  expressed  in  doubtful  terms;  others 
are  inaccurate^  perhaps,  unphilosophical :  rf)thers  again  may 
chance  to  mislead  an  ignorant  reader  into  some  erroneous  opi- 

•  Lectures  in  Divinity,  &c.  p.  49.  f  Ibid.  p.  62. 

t  Moral  and  Polit.  Thilos.  Not  having"  this  work,  or  Dr.  Powell's  Sermon 
»t  hand,  I  here  qiiote  from  Overton's  True  Cknrchman,  p.  337.  J*^- 

^  Serm.  on  Subscrip. 


Letter  XL  67 

nions:^  but  is  there  any  one  among  them  that  leads  to  immo- 
rality?  Is  there  one  in  the  number  that  will  make  us  revenge- 
ful or  cruel?"  &c.f  On  this  principle,  you  might,  in  the  Eastern 
world,  conscientiously  swear  your  assent  and  consent  to  the  fa- 
bles of  the  Koran  or  the  Vedam ! !  But,  to  proceed :  he  says,  "  No- 
thing is  clearer  than  that  the  uniform  appearance  of  religion  is 
the  cause  of  its  general  and  easy  reception.  Destroy  this  uni- 
formity, and  you  cannot  but  introduce  doubt  and  perplexity 
in  to  the  minds  of  the  people.":}:  Again,  he  says,  "  I  am  far 
from  wishing  to  discourage  the  clergy  of  the  established  church 
from  thinking  for  themselves,  or  from  speaking  what  theythink, 
nor  even  from  writing.  I  say  nothing  against  the  right  of  pri. 
V3te  judgment  or  spe'  h,  I  only  contend  that  men  ought  not 
to  attack  the  church  from  those  very  pulpits,  in  which  they 
were  placed  for  her  defence. "§  What  is  this  doctrine  of  the 
subscription  champion,  dear  sir,  I  appeal  to  you,  but  a  defence 
of  the  most  vile  and  sacrilegious  hypocrisy  that  can  possibly  be 
imagined?  He  leaves  the  clergy  at  liberty  to  disbelieve  in,  to 
tai^,  and  even  to  write,  ag-ainst  the  doctrine  of  their  church; 
but  requires  them  in  the  pulpit  to  defend  it!  I  agree  with  him 
that  contradictory  doctrines  publicly  maintained  by  ministers  of 
the  same  religion,  is  the  way  to  make  the  adherents  of  it  re- 
nounce it  entirely :  but  will  not  that  effect  more  certainly  fol* 
low  from  the  people's  discovering,  as  they  must  in  the  case 
supposed  discover,  that  their  clergy  do  not  themselves  believe 
in  the  doctrines  xvhich  they  preach  I 

But  this  system  of  deceiving  the  people  is  not  peculiar  to 
Dr.  Balguy  :  it  is  avowed  by  his  friend  and  master,  bishop 
Hoadley,  and  represented  by  archdeacon  Blackburn,  from 
whom  I  take  the  following  passage,  as  being  very  generally 
adopted. [| — "  In  all  proposals  and  schemes  to  be  reduced  to 
practice,"  the  bishop  says,  "  we  must  suppose  the  world  to  be 
what  it  is,  and  xvhat  it  ought  to  be.  We  nuist  propose,  not 
merely  what  is  al^solutely  good  in  itself,  but  what  is  so  with 
respect  to  the  prejudices,  tempers,  and  constitutions,  we  know 
and  are  sure  to  be  among  us.  It  is  represented  that  the  world 
was  never  less  disposed  to  be  serious  andv^-easonable  than  at 

*  Which  articles  they  are  that  the  doctor  particularly  objects  to,  we  can 
easily  g-ather,  from  his  general  language  concerning  mysteries,  the  sacra- 
ments, and  our  redemption  by  Christ.  On  this  last  head,  he  seriously  cau- 
tions us  against  *'  censuring  or  persecuting  our  brethren  because  their  ncni- 
sense  and  our's  wears  a  diiierent  dress."  Charge  ii.  p.  192. 

\  Charge  vi.  p.  293. 

+  Charge  V.  p.  257. 

§  Disc.  vii.  p.  120.  Discourses  by  Thomas  Balguy  D.  D.  archdeacon  and 
prebendary  of  Winchester,  &c.  dedicated  to  the  king.  Lockycr  Davies,  1785. 

il  Confessional,  p.  o75y  p.  385. 


68  Letter  XL 

this  period.  Religious  reflection,  we  are  informed,  is  not  the 
liumotir  of  the  times.  We  are  therefore  advised  to  keep  our 
prudence  and  our  patience  a  little  longer;  to  wait  till  our  peo- 
ple are  in  a  better  temper,  and  in  the  mean  time,  to  bear  with 
their  manners  and  dispositions  ;  gently  and  gradually  correct- 
ing their  foolish  notions  and  habits  ;  hut  still  taking  care  not  to 
throTV  in  more  light  upon  them^  at  once^  than  the  xueak  optica 
ofmen^  so  long  used  to  sit  in  darhiess^  are  able  to  hear,''''  His 
lordship's  words  are  guarded,  but  perfectly  intelligible.  Bishop 
Hoadle}'  had  undermined  the  church  he  professed  to  support, 
in  her  doctrine  and  discipline,  as  has  been  elsewhere  demon- 
strated,*"  and  he  wished  all  the  clergy  to  co-operate  in  diffusing 
his  Socinian  system  ;  but  he  advised  them  to  attempt  this  gen- 
tly and  gradually^  bearing  with  the  people's  foolish  notions^ 
and  not  throwing  too  much  light  upon  them  at  once  :  in  other 
words,  continuing  to  subscribe  the  Articles  and  to  preach  them 
from  the  pulpit,  being  inwardly  persuaded  at  the  same  time, 
that  they  are  not  only  false,  but  also  foolish  ! — Thus,  dear  sir, 
you  have  seen  the  necessity  to  which  the  different  Protestant 
societies  have  found  themselves  reduced,  of  occasionally  ap- 
pealing to  tradition,  and  of  assuming  authority  to  dictate  con- 
fessions and  articles  of  religion  in  direct  violation  of  their 
boasted  charter  of  private  judgment ;  and  you  have  seen  that 
this  inconsistency  has  rendered  the  remedy  worse  than  the  dis- 
ease. These  weapons,  not  being  natural  to  them,  have  been 
turned  against  them,  and  have  mortally  wounded  jhem  :  and 
*'  the  church  of  England  in  particular,"  as  one  of  its  principal 
defenders  complains,  "  is  like  an  oak,  cleft  to  shivers  with 
wedges  made  out  of  its  own  body."f  You  will  nov/  see  with 
what  ease  and  success  the  Catholic  church  wields  these  Vvca- 
pons  ;  but,  first,  I  think  it  best  to  add  something  by  way  of  con- 
firming and  elucidating  this  Catholic  rule. 

III.  What  has  been  said  above  in  proof  of  the  Catholic 
rule,  namely,  that  Chi-ist  established  it  when  he  sent  his  apos- 
tles to  preach  the  Gospel,  and  that  the  apostles  followed  it, 
when  they  established  churches  throughout  different  nations, 
is  so  incontestible  as  not  to  be  denied  by  any  of  our  learned 
opponents :  still  less  will  they  deny,  that  the  ancient  fiithers 
and  the  doctors  of  the  church,  in  every  age,  maintained  this 
rule.  Accordingly,  one  of  the  latest  and  jjiost  learned  Pro- 
testant controvertists  writes  thus,  "  No  one  will  deny  that  Je- 
sus Christ  laid  the  foundation  of  his  church  by  preaching  :  nor 
can  we  deny  that  the  unwritten  Word  was  the  first   rule    of 

•  Letter,  to  a  Prebendary,  Art.  lloadlcyism. 
I  Uaubeny's  Guide  to  the  Church,  Append. 


Letter  XI,  69 

Christianity."*  This  being  granted,  it  was  incumbent  on  his 
lordship  to  demonstrate,  and  this  by  no  less  an  authority  than 
that  which  established  the  rule,  at  what  precise  period  it  was 
abrogated.  Was  it  when  this  Gospel  or  that  Gospel,  when 
this  Epistle  or  that  Epistle,  was  written,  though  known  only  to 
particular  congregations  or  persons,  that  the  pastors  of  the 
church  lost  their  authority  of  proclaiming,  So  we  have  received 
from  the  apostles^  or  the  disciples  of  the  apostles  :  so  all  the 
other  pastors  of  the  Catholic  church  believe  and  teach?  Or 
was  this  abrogation  of  the  first  7-ule  of  Christianity  deferred 
till  the  canon  of  Scripture  was  fixed,  at  the  end  of  the  fourth 
century  ?  So  far  from  there  being  divine  authority,  there  is  - 
not  even  a  hint  in  ecclesiastical  history  on  which  to  ground  this 
pretended  alteration  in  the  rule  of  faith.  His  Lordship's  only 
foundation  is  his  otvn  conjecture :  "  It  is  extremely  improba- 
ble," he  says,  "  that  an  all-wise  Providence,  in  imparting  a  new 
revelation  to  mankind,  would  suffer  any  doctrine  or  article  of 
faith  to  be  transmitted  to  posterity  by  so  precarious  a  vehicle 
as  that  of  oral  tradition."!  The  bishop  of  London^  had  be- 
fore said  nearly  the  same  thing,  as  well  with  respect  to  tradi- 
tion being  the  original  rule  as  to  the  improbability  of  its  continu- 
ing to  be  so,  "  considering,"  as  he  says,  "  how  liable  the  easiest 
stoiy,  transmitted  by  the  word  of  mouth,  is  to  be  essentially 
altered  in  the  course  of  one  or  ivro  hundred  years'."  But,  to  the 
opinions  of  these  learned  prelates,  I  oppose,  in  the  first  place, 
undeniable y«ct9.  It  is,  then,  certain,  that  the  whole  doctrine 
and  practice  of  religion,  including  the  rites  of  sacrifice,  and, 
indeed,  the  whole  Sacred  History,  was  preserved  by  the  patri- 
archs, in  succession,  from  Adam  down  to  Moses,  during  the 
space  of  twenty-four  hundred  years,  by  means  of  tradition  : 
and,  when  the  law  was  written,  many  most  important  truths, 
regarding  a  future  life,  the  emblems  and  prophecies  concern- 
ing the  Messiah,  and  the  inspiration  and  authenticity  of  the 
Sacred  Books  themselves,  were  preserved  in  the  same  way. — 
Secondly,  it  is  unwarrantable  in  these  prelates  to  compare  the 
essential  traditions  of  religion,  with  ordinary  stories :  in  the 
truth  of  these  no  one  has  an  interest,  and  no  means  have  been 
provided  to  preserve  them  from  corruption  ;  whereas,  the  faith 
once  delivered  to  the  saiiits^  the  church  has  ever  guarded  as  the 
apple  of  her  eye^  and  all  ecclesiastical  history  witnesses  the  ex- 
treme care  and  pains  which  were  taken  in  ancient  times  by  the 
pastors  to  instruct  the  faithful  in  the  tenets  and  practices   of 

•  Comparative  View    of   the    Churches,   p.    61,  by  Dr.  (now  bishop) 
Marsh. 

I  Ibid.  p.  er.  ^  Dr.  Porteus,  Brief  Confut. 


fO  Letter  XL 

their  religion,  previously  to  their  being  baptized:*  the  same 
are  generally  taken  by  their  successors  previously  to  the  con- 
firmation and  first  comirmnion  of  their  neophytes  at  the  pre- 
sent day.  Thirdly,  when  any  fresh  controversy  arises  in  the 
church,  the  fundamental  maxim  of  the  bisops  and  Popes,  to 
whom  it  belongs  to  decide  upon  it,  is,  not  to  consult  their  own 
private  opinion  or  interpretation  of  Scripture,  but  to  inquire 
what  is  and  ever  has  been  the  doctrine  of  the  churchy  concern- 
ing it.  Hence,  their  cry  is  and  ever  has  been,  on  such  occa- 
sions, as  well  in  council  as  out  of  it:  So  we  have  received  :  so 
the  universal  church  believes:  let  there  be  no  new  doctrine  : 
none  but  what  has  been  delivered  down  to  us  by  tradition.f — 
Fourthly,  the  tradition  of  which  we  now  treat,  is  not  a  heal 
but  a  universal  tradition,  as  widely  spread  as  the  Catholic 
church  itself  is,  and  being  found  every  where  the  same.  The 
maxim  of  the  sententious  TertuUian  must  be  admitted  :  "  Er- 
ror," he  says,  "  of  course,  varies,  but  that  doctrine  which  is  one 
a;id  the  same  among  many,  is  not  an  error  but  a  tradition.":f: 
Hovvviver  liable  men,  and  particularly  illiterate  men,  are  to  be- 
lieve in  fables  ;  yet  if,  on  the  discovery  of  America,  the  inha- 
bitants of  it,  from  Hudson's  Bay  to  Cape  Horn,  had  bsen  found 
to  agree  in  the  same  account  of  their  origin  and  general  history, 
we  should  certainly  give  credit  to  them.  But,  fifihly,  in  the 
present  case,  they  are  not  the  Catholics  of  different  ages  and 
nations  alone  who  vouch  for  the  traditions  in  question,  I  mean 
those  rejected  by  Protestants,  but  all  the  subsisting  heretics  and 
schismatics  of  former  ages  without  exception.  The  Nestori- 
ans  and  Eutychians,  for  example,  deserted  the  Catholic  church, 
in  defence  of  opposite  errors,  near  fourteen  hundred  years  ago, 
and  still  form  regular  churches  under  bishops  and  patriarchs 
throughout  the  East :  in  like  manner  the  Greek  schismatics, 
properly  so  called,  broke  oif  from  the  Latin  church,  for  the 
last  time,  in  the  eleventh  cenlurv.  Theirs  is  well  known  to  be 
the  prevailing  religion  of  Christians  throughout  the  Turkish 
and  Russian  empires.  Nevertheless,  these  and  all  the  other 
Christian  sectaries  of  ancient  dat%  agree  upon  every  article  in 
dispute  between  Catholics  and  Protestants  (except  that  of  the 
Pope's  supremacy)  with  the  former  and  condemn  the  latter.^ 
Let  Dr.  Porteus  and  the  other  controvertists,  who  declaim 

•  See  Fleury's  Moeurs  des  Chrct.  Hartley,  in  bishop  Watson's  Col.  vol. 
r.p.  91. 

f  "  Nil  innovetur  :   ail  nisi  qviod  tnulitum  est."  Steph.  Papal. 

*•  i:  Variasse  deberet  error,  sed  quod  unum  apud  multos  invenitur,  non  est 
erratum,  sed  traditum."  Prxstrip.  advers.  Hncret. 

§  See  the  proofs  of  tbis,  in  \\\v.  Perpctnite  de  la  Foiy  copied  from  the  oriffi- 
nal  documents,  in  the  French  king's  library. 


Letter,  XI.  71 

against  the  alleged  ignorance  and  vices  of  the  Catholic  clerg)'' 
and  laity  daring  the  five  or  six  ages  preceding  the  Reforma- 
tion, and  pretend  to  show  how  the  tenets  which  they  object  to 
might  have  been  introduced  into  our  church,  explain  how  pre- 
cisely the  same  could  have  been  quietly  received  by  the 
Nestorians  at  Bagdad,  the  Eutychians  at  Alexandria,  and  the 
Greeks  at  Moscow !  All  these,  and  particularly  the  last  named, 
were  ever  ready  to  find  fault  with  us  upon  subjects  of 
comparatively  small  consequence,  such  as  the  use  of  unleaven- 
ed bread  in  the  sacrament,  the  days  and  manner  of  our  fasting, 
and  even  the  mode  of  shaving  our  beards  ;  and  yet,  so  far 
from  objecting  to  the  pretended  novelties  of  prayers  for  the 
dead,  addresses  to  the  saints,  the  mass,  the  real  presence,  &c. 
they  have  always  professed,  and  continue  to  profess,  these  doc- 
trines and  practices  as  zealously  as  we  do. 

Finally,  byway  of  the  farther  answer  to  his  lordship's  shame- 
ful calumny,  that  the  ancient  "  clergy  and  laity  v/ere  so  univer- 
sally and  monstrously  ignorant  and  vicious,  that  nothing  was 
too  bad  for  them  to  do  or  too  absurd  for  them  to  believe," 
thereby  insinuating  that  the  former  invented  and  the  latter 
were  duped  into  the  belief  of  the  articles  on  which  the  Catho- 
lic church  and  the  church  of  England  are  divided  ;  as  also  by 
way  of  farther  confirming  the  certainty  of  tradition,  I  maintain 
that  it  would  have  been  much  easier  for  the  ancientclergy  to  cor- 
rupt the  Scriptures  than  the  religious  belief  of  the  people.  For, 
it  is  well  known  that  the  Scriptures  were  chiefly  in  the  hands 
of  the  clergy,  and  that,  before  the  use  of  printing,  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  the  copies  of  it  were  renewed  and  multiplied  in  the 
monasteries  by  the  labour  of  the  monks,  who,  if  they  had  been 
so  wicked,  might  with  some  prospect  of  success,  have  attempt- 
ed to  alter  the  New  Testament,  in  particular,  as  they  pleased  ; 
whereas,  the  doctrines  and  practices  of  the  church  were  in  the 
hands  of  the  people  of  all  civilized  nations,  and,  therefore, 
could  not  be  altered  without  their  knowledge  and  consent 
Hence,  wherever  religious  novelties  were  introduced,  a  violent 
opposition  to  them,  and,  of  course,  tumults  and  schisms,  would 
have  ensued.  If  they  had  been  generally  received  in  one  country, 
as  for  example,  in  France,  this  would  have  been  the  occasion  of 
their  being  rejected  with  redoubled  antipathy  in  a  neighbour- 
ing hostile  nation,  as,  for  instance,  England.  Yet  none  of 
these  disturbances  or  schisms  do  we  read  of,  respecting  any  of 
the  doctrines  or  practices  of  our  religion,  objected  to  by  Pro- 
testants, either  in  the  same  kingdom,  or  among  the  different 
«t-ates^of  Christianity.  I  said  that  the  doctrines  and  practices 
of  religion  were  in  the  hands  of  all  ''the  people,"  in  fiict  they 
were  all,  in  every  part  of  the  church    oh\irr>  d  to  receive  the 


r2  Letter  XL 

holy  sacrament  at  Easter  ;  now  they  could  not  do  this  without 
knowing  whether  they  had  been  previously  taught  to  consider 
this  as  bread  and  wine  taken  in  memory  of  Christy  or  as  the 
real  bodu  and  blood  of  Christ  himself.  If  they  had  originally 
held  the  former  opinion,  could  they  have  been  persuaded  or 
dragooned  into  the  latter,  without  violent  opposition  on  their 
part,  and  violent  persecution  on  that  of  their  clergy  ?  Again, 
they  could  not  assist  at  the  religious  services  performed  at  the 
funerals  of  their  relations,  or  on  the  festivals  of  the  saints,  with- 
out recollecting  whether  they  had  previously  been  instructed 
to  pray  for  the  former,  and  to  invoke  the  prayers  of  the  latter. 
If  they  had  not  been  so  instructed,  would  they,  one  and  all,  at 
the  same  time,  and  in  every  country,  have  quietly  yielded  to 
the  first  imposters  who  preached  up  such  supposed  supersti- 
tions to  them  ;  as,  in  this  case,  we  are  sure  they  must  ha/e 
done  ?  In  a  word,  there  is  but  one  way  of  accounting  for  the 
alleged  alterations  in  the  doctrine  of  the  church,  that  mention- 
ed by  the  learned  Dr.  Bailey  ;^  which  is  to  suppose  that,  on 
some  one  night,  all  the  Christians  of  the  world  went  to  sleep 
sound  Protestants,  and  awoke  the  next  morning  rank   Papists  ! 

IV.  I  now  come  to  consider  the  benefits  derived  from  the 
Catholic  rule  or  method  of  religion.  The  first  part  of  this  rule 
conducts  us  to  the  second  part ;  that  is  to  say,  tradition  conducts 
us  to  Scripture.  We  have  seen  that  Protestants,  by  their  own 
confession,  are  obliged  to  build  the  latter  upon  the  former;  in 
doing  which  they  act  most  inconsistently:  whereas  Catholics, 
in  doing  the  same  thing,  act  with  perfect  consistency.  Again, 
Protestants  in  building  Scripture,  as  they  do,  upon  tradition, 
as  a  mere  human  testimony,  not  as  a  rule  of  faith  ^  can  only  form 
^an  act  of  human  faith ^  that  is  to  say,  an  opinion  of  its  being  in- 
spired ;f  whereas  Catholics,  believing  in  the  tradition  of  the 
church,  as  a  divine  rule^  are  enr  bled  to  believe,  and  do  believe 
in  the  Scriptures  with  2ifirmfaith^  as  the  certain  Word  of  God. 
Hence  the  Catholic  church  requires  her  pastors,  who  are  to 
preach  and  expound  the  Word  of  God,  to  study  this  second 
part  of  her  rule  no  less  than  the  first  part,  with  unremitting 
diligence ;  and  she  encourages  those  of  her  flock,  who  are  pro- 
perly qualified  and  disposed,  to  read  it  for  their  edification. 

In  perusing  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  some  of  the 
most  striking  passages  arc  those  which  regard  the  prerogatives 

•  He  was  son  of  the  bishop  of  Bang-or,  and  becoming-  a  convert  to  the  Ca- 
tholic church,  wrote  several  works  in  her  defence;  and  among-  the  rest,  one 
under  the  title  of  these  Letters,  and  another  called  AChalleng-e. 

f  Chilling:worth  in  his  Uelig-ion  of  Protestints,  chap.  ii.  expressly  teaches, 
that  '*Thc  books  of  Scripluic  arc  not  the  objects  of  our  fiviUi,"  and  that  *'a 
man  may  bo  saved,  who  shovdd  not  bcUevc  them  to  be  tlic  Word  of  God." 


lettef  XT.  7^ 

of  the  future  kingdom  of  the  Messiah,  namely,  the  extent,  the 
visibility,  and  indefectibility  of  the  church :  in  examining  the 
New  Testament,  we  find  in  several  of  its  clearest  passages,  th-j 
strongest  proofs  of  its  being  an  infallible  (^uidc  in  the  way  of 
salvation.  The  texts  alluded  to  have  been  already  cited.  Htncc^ 
we  look  upon  the  church  with  increased  veneration,  i  nd  listen 
to  her  decisions  with  redoubled  confidence. — But  here  i  think 
it  necessary  to  refute  an  objection  which,  I  believe,  was  first 
started  by  Dr.  Stillingfleet,  and  has  since  been  adopted  by  many 
other  controvertists.  They  say  to  us,  you  argue^  in  what  logi- 
'  Clans  cally  a  vicious  circle:  for  you  prove  Scripture  by  your 
churchy  and  then  your  church  by  Scripture,  This  is  like  John 
giving  a  character  to  Thomas^  and  Thomas  a  character  to  yohn. 
True  it  is,  that  I  prove  the  inspiration  of  Scripture  by  the  tra- 
dition of  the  church,  and  that  I  prove  the  infallibility  of  the 
church  by  the  testimony  of  Scripture ;  but  you  must  take  notice, 
that  independently  of,  and  prior  to,  the  testimony  of  Scripture, 
I  knew  from  tradition,  and  the  general  arguments  of  the  credi- 
bility of  Christianity,  that  the  church  is  an  illustrious  society, 
instituted  by  Christ,  and  that  its  pastors  have  been  appointed 
by  him  to  guide  me  in  the  w  ay  of  salvation.  In  a  word,  it  is 
not  every  kind  of  mutual  testimony  which  runs  in  a  vicious  cir- 
cle:  for  the  Baptist  bore  testimony  to  Christ,  and  Christ  bore 
testimony  to  the  Baptist. 

V.  The  advantage,  and  even  necessity,  of  having  n  living, 
speaking  authority  for  preserving  peace  and  order  in  every  so- 
ciety is  too  obvious  to  be  called  in  question.  The  Catholic 
church  has  such  an  authority ;  the  different  societies  of  Pro- 
testants, though  they  claim  it,  cannot  effectually  exercise  it,  as 
we  have  shown,  on  account  of  their  opposite  fundamental  prin- 
ciple of  private  judgment.  Hence  when  debates  arise  among 
Catholics  concerning  points  of  faith  (for  as  to  scholastic  and 
other  questions,  each  one  is  left  to  defend  his  own  opinion,)  the 
pastors  of  the  church,  like  judges  in  regard  of  civil  contentions, 
fail  not  to  examine  them  by  the  received  rule  of  faith,,  and  to 
pronounce  an  authoritative  sentence  upon  them.  The  dispute 
is  thus  quashed,  and  peace  is  restored:  for  if  any  party 
will  not  hear  the  churchy  he  is^  of  course,  regarded  as  a  heathen 
and  a  publican.  On  the  other  hand,  dissensions  in  any  Pro- 
testant society,  which  adheres  to  its  fundamental  rule  of  reli- 
gious liberty,  must  be  irremediable  and  endless. 

VI.  The  same  method  which  God  has  appointed  to  keep 
peace  in  his  church,  he  has  also  appointed  to  preseWe  it  in  the 
breasts  of  her  several  children.  Hence  while  other  Christians, 
wlio  have  no  rule  of  faith  but  their  own  fluctuating  opinions, 
are  carried  about  by  every  wind  of  doctrine^  and  are  agitated 

K 


74  Letter  XI 

by  dreadful  dou!)ts  and  fears,  as  to  the  safety  of  the  road  they 
are  in ;  Catholics,  being  inoored  to  the  rock  of  Christ's  church, 
never  expricnce  an)'  apprehension  whatsoever  on  this  head. 
The  truth  of  this  may  be  ascertained  by  questioning  pious  Ca- 
tholics, and  particularly  those  who  have  been  seriously  convert- 
ed from  any  species  of  ProtestanLiom:  such  persons  are  gene- 
rally found  to  spjalc  in  raptures  of  the  peace  and  security  they 
enjoy  in  the  commu  lion  ot  tlie  Catholic  church,  compared  with 
their  doubts  and  fears  before  they  embraced  It.  Still  the  death- 
bed is  evidently  the  best  situation  for  making  this  inquiry.  I 
have  mentioned,  in  my  former  letter,  that  great  numbers  of 
Protestants,  at  the  approach  of  death,  seek  to  be  reconciled  to 
the  Catholic  church;  many  instances  of  this  are  notorious, 
though  many  more,  for  obvious  reasons,  are  coi  caled  from 
public  notice :  on  the  other  hand,  a  challenge  has  frequently 
been  made  by  Catholics  (among  the  rest  by  sir  Toby  Mathews, 
Dean  Cressy,  F.  Walsingham,  Molincs  di*  Flechiere,  and  Ul- 
ric,  duke  of  Brunswick,  all  of  them  converts)  to  the  whole 
world  to  name  a  single  Catholic,  who,  at  the  hour  of  death, 
expressed  a  wish  to  die  in  any  other  communion  than  his  own ! 
I  have  now,  dear  sir,  fully  proved  what  I  undertook  to  prove, 
that  the  rule  of  faith  professed  by  rational  Protestants,  that  of 
Scripture  as  interpreted  by  each  person's  private  judgment^  is 
no  less  fallacious  than  the  rule  of  fanatics,  who  imagine  them- 
selves to  be  directed  by  an  individual^  private  inspiration,  I 
have  shown  that  this  rule  is  evidently  unserviceable  to  injinitely 
the  greater  part  of  mankind;  that  it  is  liable  to  lead  men  into 
error,  and  that  it  has  actually  led  vast  numbers  of  them  into 
endless  errors  and  shocking  impieties.  The  proof  of  these  points 
was  sufficient,  according  to  the  principles  I  laid  down  at  the 
beginning  of  our  controversy,  to  disprove  the  rule  itself:  but  I 
have,  moreover,  demonstrated  that  our  divine  Master,  Christ, 
did  not  establish  this  rule,  nor  his  apostles  follow  it:  that  the 
Protesant  churches,  and  that  of  England,  in  particuh  r,  were 
not  founded  according  to  this  rule:  and  that  individual  Pro- 
testants have  not  been  guided  by  it  in  the  choice  of  their  reli- 
gion :  finally,  that  the  adoption  of  it  leads  to  uncertainty  and 
uneasiness  of  mind  in  life,  and  more  particularly  at  the  hour  of 
death. — On  the  other  hand,  I  have  shown  that  the  Catholic 
rule,  that  of  the  entire  word  of  God,  unwritten  as  well  as  writ- 
ten, together  with  the  authority  of  the  li\^g  pastors  of  the 
church  in  explaining  it,  was  appointed  by  Christ: — was  follow- 
ed by  the  ai^)ostles: — was  maintained  by  the  holy  fathers: — 
has  been  resorted  to  from  necessity,  in  both  particulars,  by  the 
Protestant  congregations,  though  with  the  worst  success,  from 
the  impossibility  of  uniting  private  judgment  with  it: — that 


Letter  XIL  75 

tradition  lays  a  firm  ground  for  divine  faith  in  Scripture:  that 
these  two  united  together  as  one  rule,  and  each  bearing  testi- 
mony to  the  living,  speaking  authority  of  the  church  in  ex- 
pounding that  rule,  the  latter  is  preserved  in  peace  and  union 
through  all  ages  and  nations  :* — and,  in  short,  that  Catholics, 
by  adhering  to  this  rule  and  authority,  live  and  die  in  peace 
and  security,  as  far  as  regards  the  truth  of  their  religion. 

It  remains  for  }  ou,  dear  sir,  and  your  religious  frienuc, 
who  have  called  me  into  this  field  of  controversy,  to  deter- 
mine which  of  the  two  methods  you  will  follow,  in  settling 
your  religious  concerns  for  time  and  FOR  ETERNITY: 
Were  it  possible  for  me  to  err  in  following  the  Catholic  me- 
thod, with  such  a  mass  of  evidence  in  its  favour,  methinks  I 
could  answer  at  the  judgment  seat  of  Eternal  Truth,  with  a 
pious  writer  of  the  middle  ages:  "Lord,  if  I  have  been  deceiv- 
ed, thou  art  the  author  of  my  error."f  Whereas  should  you 
be  found  to  have  mistaken  the  right  way,  by  depending  upon 
your  own  private  opinion,  contrary^  to  the  directions  of  your 
authorized  guides,  what  would  you  be  able  to  allege  in  excuse 
for  such  presumption? — Think  of  this  while  you  have  time,  and 
pray  humbly  and  earnestly  for  God's  holy  grace  to  enlighten 
and  strengthen  you. 

I  am,  Dear  Sir,  &c, 

J.  M. 


LETTER  XII. 

TO  JAMES  BROWN,  Esq.  4'c. 

OBJECTIONS  ANSWERED. 

Dear  Sik, 

I  AM  not  forgetful  of  the  promise  I  made  in  my  last  letter 
but  one,  to  answer  the  contents  of  those  which  I  had  then  re- 
ceived from  yourself,  Mr.  Topham,  and  Mr.  Askew.  Within 
these  few  days  I  have  received  other  letters  from  yourself  and 

•   **  DomiciUiiim  pacis  et  unltatis" — S.  Cyp.  Ep.  46. 
t  Hugh  of  St.  Victor. 


76  Letter  XIL  ' 

Mr.  Topham,  which,  equally  with  the  former,  call  for  my  atten- 
tion to  their  substance.  However,  it  would  take  up  a  great  deal 
of  time  to  write  separate  answers  to  each  of  these  letters,  and, 
as  I  know,  that  they  are  arguments,  and  not  formalities,  which 
you  expect  from  me,  I  shall  make  this  letter  a  general  reply  to 
the  several  objections  contained  in  them  all,  with  the  exception 
of  such  as  have  been  answered  in  my  last  to  you.  Conceiving, 
also,  that  it  will  contribute  to  the  brevity  and  perspicuity  of 
my  letter,  if  I  arrange  the  several  objections,  from  whomsoever 
they  came,  under  their  proper  heads ;  and  if,  on  this  occasion, 
I  make  use  of  the  scholastic  instead  of  the  epistolary  style, 
JI  shall  adopt  both  these  methods.  I  must,  however,  remark, 
before  I  enter  upon  my  task,  that  most  of  the  objections  appear 
to  have  been  borrowed  from  the  bishop  of  London's  book  called 
a  Brief  Confutation  of  the  Errors  of  Popery,  This  was  ex- 
tracted from  archbishop  Seeker's  Sermons  on  the  same  subject; 
which,  themselves,  were  culled  out  of  his  predecessor  Tillot- 
son's  pulpit  controversy.  Hence  you  may  justly  consider  your 
arguments  as  the  strongest  which  can  be  brought  against  the 
Catholic  rule  and  religion.  Under  this  persuasion  the  work  in 
question  has  been  selected  for  gratuitous  distribution,  by  your 
tract  societies,  wherever  they  particularly  wish  to  restrain  or 
suppress  Catholicity, 

Against  the  Catholic  rule  it  is  objected  that  Christ  referred 
the  Jews  to  the  Scriptures :  Search  the  Scriptures;  for  in  them 
ye  think  ye  hav-e  eternal  life:  and  they  are  they  -which  testify  of 
me,  John  v.  35.  Again,  the  Jews  of  Berea  are  commended  by 
the  sacred  penman,  in  that  they  search  the  Scriptures  daily ^ 
whether  these  things  were  so.  Acts  xvii,  11. 

Before  I  enter  on  the  discussion  of  any  part  of  Scripture, 
with  you  or  your  friends,  I  am  bound,  dear  sir,  in  conformity 
with  my  rule  of  faith,  as  explained  by  the  fathers,  and  particu- 
larly by  Tertullian,  to  protest  against  your  or  their  right  to  ar- 
gue from  Scripture,  and,  of  course,  to  deny  any  need  there  is 
of  my  replying  to  any  objection  which  you  may  draw  from  it. 
For  I  have  reminded  you  that.  No  prophecy  of  Scripture  is  of 
any  private  eiiterpretation;  and  I  have  proved  to  you  that  the 
whole  business  of  the  Scriptures  belongs  to  the  church:  she  has  • 
preserved  them,  she  vouches  for  them,  and,  she  alone,  by  con- 
fronting them,  and  by  the  help  of  tradition,  authoritatively  ex- 
plains them.  Hence  it  is  impossible  that  the  real  sense  of  Scrip- 
ture should  ever  be  against  her  and  her  doctrine  ;  and  hence, 
of  course,  I  might  quash  every  objection  which  you  can  draw 
from  any  passage  in  it  by  this  short  reply.  The  church  un^ 
derstands  the  passai^e  differently  from  you;  therefore  you  mis- 
take its  meaninq\  Ne^•crthek'ss,  as  charity  bearcth  all  things 
and  never  failcth^  I  will,  for  tlie  better  satisfying  of  you  and 


Letter  XII,  ff 

vour  friends,  quit  my  vantage  ground  for  the  present,  and  an- 
swer distinctly  to  eveiy  text  not  yet  answered  by  me,  which 
any  of  you,  gentlemen,  or  which  Dr.  Porteus  himself,  has 
brought  against  the  Catholic  method  of  religion. 

By  way  of  answering  your  first  objection,  let  me  ask  you, 
whether  Christ,  by  telling  the  Jews  to  search  the  Scriptures  in- 
timated that  they  were  not  to  believe  in  his  unwritten  Wordy 
which  he  was  then  preaching,  nor  to  hear  his  apostles  and  their 
successors^  with  whom  he  promised  to  remain  forever?  I  ask, 
secondly,  on  what  particular  question  Christ  referred  to  the 
Scripture,  namely,  the  Old  Scripture?  (for  no  part  of  the  New 
was  then  written)  was  it  on  any  question  that  has  been  or  might 
be  agitated  among  Christians?  No,  certainly:  the  sole  ques- 
tion between  him  and  the  infidel  Jews^  was,  whether  he  was  or 
was  not  the  Messiah :  in  proof  that  he  was  the  Messiah,  he  ad- 
duced the  ordinary  motives  of  credibility,  as  they  have  been 
detailed  by  your  late  worthy  rector,  Mr.  Carey,  the  miracles 
he  wrought,  and  the  prophecies  in  the  Old  Testament  that  were 
fulfilled  in  him,  as  likewise  the  testimony  of  St  John  the  Bap- 
tist. The  same  is  to  be  said  of  the  commendations  bestowed 
by  St  Luke  on  the  Bercans ;  they  searched  the  ancient  prophe- 
cies, to  verify  that  the  Messiah  was  to  be  born  at  such  a  time, 
and  in  such  a  place,  and  that  his  life  and  his  death  were  to  be 
marked  by  such  and  such  circumstances.  We  still  refer  Jews 
and  other  Infidels  to  the  same  proofs  of  Christianit)',  without 
saying  any  thing  yet  to  them  about  our  rule  or  judge  of  contro- 
versies. 

Dr.  Porteus  objects  what  St  Luke  says,  at  the  beginning  of 
his  Gospel:  It  seemed  good  to  me  cdso^  having  had  perfect  under- 
standing of  all  thingsfrom  the  very  firsts  to  zvrite  unto  thee  in 
order,  most  excellent  Theophilus,  that  thou  mightest  know  the 
certainty  of  those  things  wherein  thou  hast  been  instructed. 
Again  St.  John  says,  c.  xx.  These  things  are  writteii  that  ye 
might  believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God;  and  that 
believing  ye  might  have  life  through  his  ncnne. 

Answer.  It  is  difficult  to  conceive  how  his  lordship  can  draw- 
an  argument  from  these  texts  against  the  Catholic  rule.  Surely 
he  does  not  gather  from  the  words  of  St.  Luke,  that  Theophi-r 
lus  did  not  believe  the  articles  in  which  he  had  been  instructed 
by  word  of  mouth  till  he  read  this  Gospel!  or  that  the  evange- 
list gainsayed  the  authority  given  by  Christ  to  his  disciples:  He 
that  heareth  you  heareth  me,  which  he  himself  records,  Luke-^, 
16.  In  like  manner  the  prelate  cannot  suppose  that  this  testi- 
mony of  St.  John  sets  aside  other  testimonies  of  Christ's  divi- 
nit)',  or  that  our  belief  in  this  single  article  without  other  con- 
ditions, will  ensure  eternal  life. 


79  Letter  XII. 

Having  quoted  these  texts,  which  appear  to  meinconclusive^ 
the  bishop  adds,  by  way  of  proving  that  Scripture  is  sufhciently 
intelligible,  "  Surely  the  apostles  were  not  worse  "writers,  with 
divine  assistance,  than  others  commonly  are  without  it."* 

I  will  not  here  repeat  the  arguments  and  testimonies  already 
brought!  to  show  the  great  obscurity  of  a  considerable  portion 
of  the  Bible,  particularly  with  respect  to  the  bulk  of  mankind, 
because  it  is  sufficient  to  refer  to  the  clear  words  of  St.  Peter, 
declaring  that  there  are  in  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  some  things 
hard  to  be  understood^  which  the  unlearned  and  unstable  wrest, 
as  they  do  all  the  other  Scriptures^  unto  their  own  destruction, 
(2  Peter  iii.  16,)  and  to  the  instances,  which  occur  in  the  Gos- 
pels, of  the  very  apostles  frequently  misunderstanding  the  mean- 
ing of  their  divine  Master. 

The  learned  prelate  says,  elsewhere,^:  "The  New  Testament 
supposes  them  (the  generality  of  the  people)  capable  of  judg- 
ing for  themselves,  and  accordingly  requires  them  not  only  to 
try  the  spirits  whether  they  be  of  God,  1  John  iv.  1,  but  to  prove 
all  things  and  holdfast  that  rvhich  is  good.  1  Thess.  v.  21." 

Answer.  True :  St.  John  tells  the  Christians,  to  whom  he 
writes  to  try  the  spirits  whether  they  are  of  God,  because,  he 
adds,  mvLYiy  false  prophets  are  gone  out  into  the  world.  But  then 
he  gives  them  two  rules  for  making  trial:  Hereby  ye  know  the 
spirit  of  God.  Every  spirit  that  confesseth  that  Jesus  Christ 
is  come  in  the  flesh,  is  of  God.  And  every  spirit  that  confesseth 
not  that  Jesus  is  come  in  the  flesh,  (which  was  denied  by  the 
heretics  of  that  time,  the  disciples  of  Simon  and  Cerinthus)  is 
not  of  God.  In  this,  the  apostle  tells  the  Christians  to  see  wheth- 
er the  doctrine  of  these  spirits  was  or  was  not  conformable  to 
that  which  they  had  learnt  from  the  church.  The  second  rule 
was.  He  that  knoweth  God,  heareth  us;  he  that  is  not  of  God, 
heareth  not  us.  Hereby  know  we  the  spirit  of  truth  and  the  spi- 
it  of  error:  namely,  he  bid  them  observe  whether  these  teach- 
ers did  or  did  not  listen  to  the  divinely-constituted  pastors  ot 
the  rhurch.  Dr.  P.  is  evidently  here  quoting  Scripture /br 
our  ^ule,  not  against  it.  The  same  is  to  be  said  of  the  other 
text.  Prophesy  was  exceedingly  common  at  the  beginning  of 
the  church  ;  but,  as  we  have  just  seen,  there  were  false  pro- 
phets as  well  as  true  prophets :  hence,  while  the  apostle  defends 
this  supernatural  gift  in  general,  Despise  no^prophesyings,  he 
admonishes  the  Thessaloniims  to  prove  them:  not  certainly  by 
their  private  opinions,  which  would  be  the  source  of  endless 
discord;  but,  by  the  established  rules  of  the  church,  and  parti- 
cularly by  that  which  he  telib  .hem  to  hold  fast,  2  I'hess.  ii.  15, 
namely,  tradition. 

■•  \ 
•  P.  4,  t  L<  Uer  Ix.  ♦  P.  19 


t  letter  Xlf.  78 

Dr.  P.  in  another  place,*  urges  the  exhortation  of  St.  Paul 
to  Timothy/Continue  thou  in  the  things  which  thou  hast  kam- 
ed  and  hast  been  assured  of,  knowing  of  whom  thou  hast  learn- 
ed them :  and  that  from  a  child  thou  hast  known  the  holy  Scrip- 
tures, which  are  able  to  make  thee  wise  unto  salvation,  through 
faith  in  Christ  Jesus.  All  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of 
God,  and  is  profitable  for  doctrine,  for  reproof,'&c.  2  Tim.  iii. 

Answer.  Does,  t^en,  the  prelate  mean  to  say,  that  tht^ 
form  of  sound  words  which  Timothy  had  heard  from  St.  Paul, 
and  which  he  was  commanded  to  holdfast^  2  Tim.  i.  13,  was 
all  contained  in  the  Old  Testament,  the  only  Scripture  which 
he  could  have  read  in  his  childhood  ?  Or  that,  in  this  he  could 
have  learned  the  mysteries  of  the  Trinity  and  the  incarnation, 
or  the  ordinances  of  baptism  and  the  eucharist  ?  The  first 
part  of  the  question  is  a  general  commendation  of  tradition, 
the  latter  of  Scripture. 

Against  tradition.  Dr.  P.  and  yourself  quotef  Mark  vii, 
where  the  Pharisees  and  Scribes  asked  Christ,  Why  walk  not 
thy  disciples  according  to  the  traditiori  of  the  elders^  but  eat 
bread  with  unwashed  hands  ?  He  answered  and  said  to  thevi^ 
In  vain  do  they  worship  me,  teaching  FORX  doctrines  the  covi- 
mandments  of  men.  For,  laying  aside  the  commandments  of 
God,  ye  hold  the  tradition  of  men,  as  the  washing  of  pots  and 
tups,  ^c. 

Answer.  Among  the  traditions  which  prevailed  at  the  time 
of  our  Saviour,  some  were  divine,  such  as  the  inspiration  of 
the  books  of  Moses  and  the  other  prophets,  the  resurrection  of 
the  body,  and  the  last  judgment,  which  assuredly  Christ  did 
not  condemn,  but  confirm.  There  were  others,  merely  human, 
and  of  a  recent  date,  introduced,  as  St.  Jerome  informs  us,  by 
Sammai,  Killel,  Achiba,  and  other  Pharisees,  from  which  the 
Talmud  is  chiefly  gathered.  These,  of  course,  were  never 
obligatory.  In  like  manner,  there  are  among  Catholics  divine 
traditions,  such  as  the  inspiration  of  the  Gospels,  the  divine, 
observation  of  the  Lord's  day,  the  lawfulness  of  invoking  the 
prayers  of  the  saints,  and  other  things  not  clearly  contained 
in  Scripture  ;  and  there  are  among  many  Catholics,  historical 
and  even  fabulous  traditions. §   Now,  it  is  the  former,  as  avow- 

^  •?.  69.  fP-  11- 

t  This  particle  FOR,  which  in  some  degree  affects  the  sense,  is  a  corrupt 
interpolation  as  appears  from  the  orig-inal  Greek. 

N.  B.  The  texts  which  Dr.  P.  refers  to  I  quote  from  the  common  Bible  ; 
his  citations,  of  it  are  frequently  inaccurate. 

§  Such  are  the  acts  of  several  saints  condemned  by  Pope  Gelasius  ;  such  al- 
so was  the  opinion  of  Christ's  reign  upon  earth  for  a  thousand  years. 


80  Letter  XT/. 

"  **^"  i 
ed  to  be  divine  by  tbe  cburch,  tbat  we  appeal :  of  tbe  others, 
every  one  may  judg;e  as  he  thinks  best. 

You  both,  likewise,  quote  Coloss.  ii.  8.      Bexvare   lest   any 
7ncm  spoil  (cheat)  ifou  through  philosophij  and  vain  deceit^  ({ft^r . 
the  tradition  of  mcn^  after  the  rudiments  of  the  -world,,  and  not 
after  Christ, 

Answer.  The  apostle  himself  informs  the  CoUossians  what 
kind  of  traditions  he  here  speaks  of,  where  he  says,  Let  no 
7?ian  therefore  judge  you  in  7neat  or  drink,,  or  in  respect  of  any 
holiday,,  or  of  the  new  moon,,  or  of  the  Sabbath  days.  The  an- 
cient fathers  and  ecclesiastical  historians  inform  us,  that,  in  the 
age  of  the  apostles,  many  Jews  and  Pagan  philosophers  pro- 
fessed Christianity,  but  endeavoured  to  allay  with  it  their  res- 
pective superstitions  and  vain  speculations,  absolutely  inconsis- 
tent with  the  doctrine  of  the  CTOspel.  It  was  against  these  St. 
Paul  wrote,  not  against  those  traditions  which  he  commanded 
his  converts  to  holdfast  to,,  whether  they  had  been  taught  by 
word  or  by  Epistle,,  2  Thess.  ii.  15;  nor  those  traditions 
which  he  commended  his  other  converts yor  keeping,,  1  Cor.  xi. 
2.*  Finally,  the  apostles,  in  that  passage,  did  not  abrogate  this 
his  awful  sentence,  noxv  we  command  you,,  brethre?i,  in  the  name 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,,  that  ye  zuithdraw  yourselves  from 
every  brother  that  walketh  disorderly,,  and  not  after  the  tradi^ 
tion  xvhich  he  received  of  us.  2  Thess.  iii.  6.  i 

Against  the  infallibility  of  the  church  in  deciding  questions 
of  faith,  I  am  referred  to  various  other  arguments  jnade  use  of 
by  Dr.  Porteus  ;  and,  in  the  first  place,  the  following ;  "  Ro- 
manists themselves  own  that  men  must  use  their  eyes,  to  find 
this  guide  ;  why  then  must  they  put  them  out,  to  follow 
him  ?"f  I  answer  by  the  following  comparisons.  Every  pru- 
dent man  makes  use  of  his  reason,  to  find  out  an  able  physi- 
cian to  take  care  of  his  health,  and  an  able  lawyer  to  secure  his 
property  :  but  having  found  these,  to  his  full  satisfaction,  does  i 
he  dispute  with  the  former  about  the  quality  of  medicines,  or 
with  the  latter  about  forms  of  law  ?  Thus  the  Catholic  makes  use 
of  his  reason,  to  observe  which,  among  the  rival  communions, 
is  the  church  that  Christ  established  and  promised  to  remain 
with  :  having;  ascertained  that,  by  the  j)Iain  acknowledged 
marks  which  this  church  bears,  he  trusts  his  soul  to  her  uner- 
ring judgment,  in  preference  to  his  own  flipctuating  opinion. 

Dr.  Porteus  adds,  ''  Ninety-nine  parts  in  every  hundred 
of  their  (the  Catholic)  communion,  have  no  other  rule  to  follow, 
but  what  a  few  priests  and  private  writers  tell  them.^t     Ac 

•  The  Eng-lisli  Tesjianient  puts  tlie  word  ordhiance  here  for  iraditioru,  con- 
trary to  the  sense  of  the  original  Greek,  and  even  the  authority  of  Beza  , 
i  P.  19       -  I  Ibid. 


Letter  XII,  81 

cording  to  this  mode  of  reasoning,  a  loyal  subject  does  not 
make  any  act  of  the  legislature  the  rule  of  his  civil  conduct, 
because,  perhaps,  he  learns  it  only  from  a  printed  paper,  or  the 
proclamation  of  the  bell-man.  Most  likely  the  Catholic  peasant 
[earns  the  doctrine  of  the  church  from  his  parish  priest ;  but 
then  he  knows  that  the  doctrine  of  this  priest  must  be  conforma- 
ble to  that  of  his  bishop,  and  that  otherwise  he  will  soon  be 
called  to  an  account  for  it.  He  knows  also  that  the  doctrine 
of  the  bishop  himself  must  be  conformable  to  that  of  the  other 
bishops  and  the  Pope,  and  that  it  is  a  fundamental  maxim  with 
them  all,  never  to  admit  of  any  tenet  but  such  as  is  beheved  by^, 
all  the  bishops,  and  was  beheved  by  their  predecessors  up  to  the 
apostles  themselves. 

The  prelate  gives  a  ''rule  for  the  unlearned  and  ignorant  in 
religion,  (that  is  to  say  of  ninety-nine  in  every  hundred  of  them,) 
which  is  this  :  Let  each  man  improve  his  own  judgment,  and 
increase  his  own  knowledge  as  much  as  he  can  ;  and  be  fully 
assured  that  God  will  expect  no  more." — ^What  ?  If  Christ  has 
given  some  apostles,  and  some  prophets,  and  some  evangelists 
and  some  pastors  and  teachers  ;  for  the  perfecting  the  saints,  for 
the  work  of  the  ministry,  Ephes.  iv.  11,  does  he  not  expect  that 
Christians  should  hearken  to  them,  and  obey  them.^*  The 
prelate  goes  on  :  "  In  matters,  for  which  he  must  rely  on  au" 
thority,"  (mere  Scripture  then,  and  private  judgment,  accord- 
ing to  the  bishop  himself,  are  not  always  a  sufficient  rule,  even 
for  Protestants,  but  they  must  in  some  matters  rely  on  church 
authority,)  "  let  him  rely  on  the  authority  of  that  church  which 
God's  providence  has  placed  him  under,"  (that  is  to  say,  whe- 
ther Catholic,  Protestant,  Socinian,  Antinomian,  Jewish,  &ic.) 
"  rather  than  another  which  he  hath  nothing  to  do  with,"  (every 
Christian  has,  or  ought  to  have,  something  to  do  with  Christ's 
true  church,)  and  "  trust  to  those,  who,  by  encouraging  free 
Inquiry,  appear  to  love  truth ;  rather  than  such  as,  by  requiring 
all  their  doctrines  to  be  imphcitly  obeyed,  seem  conscious  that 
they  will  not  bear  to  be  fairly  tried."  What,  my  lord,  would 
you  have  me  trust  those  men,  who  have  just  now  deceived  me, ' 
by  assuring  me  that  I  should  not  stand  in  need  of  guides  at  all, 
rather  than  those  who  told  me,  from  the  first,  of  the  perplexities 
in  which  I  find  myself  entangled  !  Again,  do  you  advise  me  to 
prefer  these  conductors,  who  are  forced  to  confess  that  they 
may  mislead  me,  to  those  others  who  assure  me,  and  this  upon 
such  strong  grounds,  that  they  will  conduct  me  with  perfect 
safety ! 

h 


82  Letter  X/T. 

Our  Episcopal  controvertist  finishes  his  admonition  "  to  the 
ignorant  and  unlearned,"  with  an  address,  calculated  for  the 
stupid  and  bigoted.  He  says,  *'  Let  others  build  on  fathers 
and  Popes,  on  traditions  and  councils,  what  they  will :  let  us 
continue  firm,  as  we  are,  on  the  foundation  of  the  apostles  and 
prophets,  Jesus  Christ  himself  being  the  chief  corner-stone." 
Ephes.  ii.  What  empty  declamation  !  Do  then  the  fathers, 
Popes,  and  councils,  profess  or  attempt  to  build  religion  on  any 
other  foundation  than  the  revelation  made  by  God  to  the  apos- 
tles and  prophets  f  His  lordship  knows  full  well  that  they  do 
not,  and  that  the  only  questions  at  issue  are  these  three  :  First, 
Whether  this  revelation  has  not  been  made  and  conveyed  by  the 
unwritten  as  well  as  by  the  written  Word  of  God  ?  Secondly, 
Whether  Christ  did  not  commit  this  Word  to  his  apostles  and 
their  successors,  till  the  end  of  the  world,  for  them  to  preserve 
and  announce  it  ?  Lastly,  Whether,  independently  of  this  com- 
mission, it  is  consistent  with  common  sense,  for  each  Protestant 
ploughman  and  mechanic  to  persuade  himself  that  he,  indivi- 
dually, (for  he  cannot,  according  to  his  rule,  build  on  the  opi- 
nion of  other  Protestants,  though  he  could  find  any  wliose  faith 
exactly  tallied  with  his  own,)  that  he,  I  say,  individually,  under- 
stands the  Scriptures  better  than  all  the  doctors  and  bishops  of 
the  church,  who  now  are,  or  ever  have  been  since  the  time  of 
the  apostles  !* 

One  of  your  Salopian  friends,  in  writing  to  me,  jidicules  the 
idea  of  infallibility  being  lodged  in  any  mortal  man,  or  number 
of  men.  Hence,  it  is  fair  to  conclude,  that  he  does  not  look 
upon  himself  to  be  infallible  :  now  nothing  short  of  a  man's 
conviction  of  his  own  infallibility,  one  might  think,  would  put 
him  on  preferring  his  own  judgment,  in  matters  of  religion,  to 
that  of  the  church  of  all  ages  and  all  nations.  Secondly,  if 
this  objection  were  valid,  it  would  prove  that  the  apostles  them- 
selves were  not  infallible.  Finally,  I  could  wish  your  friend  to 
form  a  right  idea  of  this  matter.  The  infallibility,  then,  of  our 
church,  is  not  a  power  of  teUing  all  things  past,  present,  and  to 
come,  such  as  the  Pagans  ascribed  to  their  oracles  ;  but  merely 
the  aid  of  God's  holy  spirit,  to  enable  her  truly  to  decide  what 
her  faith  is,  and  ever  has  been,  in  such  articles  as  have  been 
made  known  to  her  by  Scripture  and  tradition.     This  definition 


•  The  grent  Bossuet  obliged  the  minister,  Claude,  in  his  conference  with  him* 
openly  to  avow  this  principle  ;  which,  in  fact,  every  consistent  Protestant  mmt 
avow,  who  maintains  his  private  interpretation  of  the  Bible  to  be  the  only  rul« 
of  his  faith. 


Letter  XIL  8S 

furnishes  answers  to  diverse  other  objections  and  questions  of 
Dr.  P.     The  church  does  not  decide  the  controversy  concern-  A«-W 
ing  the  conception  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  and  several  other  dis-     '  '^' 
puted  points,  because  she  sees   nothing  absolutely  clear  and         ^ 
certain  concerning  them,  either  in  the  written  or  the  unwritten         ^ 
Word ;  and  therefore  leaves   her  children  to  form  their  own 
Opinions  concerning  them.     She  does  not  dictate  an  exposition 
of  the  whole  Bible,  because  she  has  no  tradition  concerning  a 
very  great  proportion  of  it,  as  for  example,  concerning  the  prO' 
phecy  of  Enoch  J  quoted  by  Jwc?e,  14,  and  the  baptism  for  the 
dead,  of  which  St.  Paul  makes  mention,  1  Cor.  xv.  29,  and  the 
chronologies  and  genealogies  in  Genesis.     The  prelate  urges 
that  the  words  of  St.  Paul,  where  he  declares  that,  The  church 
of  God  is  the  pillar  and  ground  of  truth,  1  Tim.  iii.  15,  may  be 
translated  a  different  way  from  that  received. — ^True  :  they  may, 
but  not  without  altering  the  original  Greek,  as  also  the  common 
Protestant  version.     He  says,  it  was  ordained  in  the  Old  Law 
that  every  controversy  should  be   decided  by  the  priests  and 
Levites,  Devt.  xvii.  8,  and  yet  that  these  avowedly  erred  in  re- 
jecting Christ. — True :  but  the  Law  had  then  run  its  destined 
course,  and  the  divine  assistance  failed  the  priests  in  the  very  act 
of  their  rejecting  the  promised  Messiah,  who  was  then  before 
them.     He  adds,  that  St.  Paul  in  his  Epistle  to  the  church  of 
Rome  bids  her  not  be  high  minded,  but  fear;  for  (he  adds)  if 
God  spared  not  the  Jews,  take  heed  lest  he  also  spare  not  thee^ 
Rom.  xi. — Supposing  the  quotation  to  be  accurate,  and  that  the 
threat  is  particularly  addressed  to  the    Christians  of  Rome ; 
what  is  that  to  the  present  purpose  ?  We  never  supposed  the  pro- 
mises of  Christ  to  belong  to  them  or  their  successors  more  than 
to  the  inhabitants  of  any  other  city.     Indeed  it  is  the  opinion 
of  some  of  our  most  learned  commentators,  that  before  the  end 
of  the  world,  Rome  will  relapse  into  its  former  Paganism.*     In 
a  word,  the  promises  of  our  Saviour,  that  helVs  gates  shall  not 
prevail  against  his  church — that  his  Holy  Spirit  shall  lead  it  in- 
to all  truth — and  that  he  himself  will  remain  ivith  it  for  ever, 
were  made  to  the  church  of  all  nations,  and  all  times,  in  com- 
munion with  St.  Peter  and  his  successors,  the  bishops  of  Rome : 
and   as  these   promises  have  been  fulfilled,   during  a  succes- 
sion of  eighteen  centuries,  contrary  to  the  usual  and  natural 
course  of  events,  and  by  the  visible  protection  of  the  Almighty, 
SO  we  rest  assured  that  he  will  continue  to  fulfil  them,  till  the 

*  See  Cornel,  a  Lapid.  in  Apocalyp. 


84  Letter  XII 

church  militant  shall  be  wholly  transformed  into  the  church 
triumphant  in  the  heavenly  kingdom. 

Finally,  his  lordship,  with  other  controvertists,  objects  against 
the  infallibility  of  the  Catholic  church,  that  its  advocates  are  not 
agreed  where  to  lodge  this  prerogative ;  some  ascribing  it  to 
the  Pope,  others  to  a  general  council,  or  to  the  bishops  dispersed 
throughout  the  church.  True,  schoolmen  discuss  some  such 
pomts  :  but  let  me  ask  his  lordship,  whether  he  finds  any  Ca- 
tholic who  denies  or  doubts  that  a  general  council,  with  the 
Pope  at  its  head,  or  that  the  Pope  himself,  issuing  a  doctrinal 
decision,  which  is  received  by  the  great  body  of  Catholic 
bishops,  is  secure  from  error  ?  Most  certainly  not :  and  hence 
he  may  gather  where  all  Catholics  agree  in  lodging  infallibili- 
ty. In  like  manner,  with  respect  to  our  national  constitution; 
some  lawyers  hold  that  a  royal  proclamation,  in  such  and  such 
circumstances,  has  the  force  of  a  law,  others  that  a  vote  of  the 
house  of  lords,  or  of  the  commons,  or  of  both  houses  together, 
has  the  same  strength ;  but  all  subjects  acknowledge  that  an 
act  of  the  king,  lords,  and  commons,  is  binding  upon  them  5 
and  this  suffices  for  all  practical  purposes. 

But  when,  dear  sir,  will  there  be  an  end  of  the  objections  and 
cavils  of  men,  whose  pride,  ambition,  or  interest,  leads  them  to 
deny  the  plainest  truths !  You  have  seen  those  which  the  inge- 
nuity and  learning  of  the  Porteus's,  Seekers,  and  Tillotsons 
have  raised  against  the  unchangeable  Catholic  rule  and  inter- 
preter of  faith :  say,  is  there  any  thing  sufficientlj^  clear  and 
certain  in  them  to  oppose  to  the  luminous  and  sure  principles, 
on  which  the  Catholic  method  is  placed  f  Do  they  aflbrd  you 
a  sure  footing,  to  support  you  against  all  doubts  and  fears  on 
the  score  of  your  religion,  especially  under  the  apprehension  of 
approaching  dissolution  ?  If  you  answer  affirmatively,  I  have 
nothing  more  to  say  ;  but  if  you  cannot  so  answer,  and,  if  you 
justly  dread  undertaking  your  voyage  to  eternity  on  the  pre- 
sumption of  your  private  judgment,  a  presumption  which  you 
have  clearly  seen  has  led  so  many  other  rash  Christians  to  cer- 
tain shipwreck,  follow  the  example  of  those  who  have  happily 
arrived  at  the  port  which  you  are  in  quest  of:  in  other  words, 
listen  to  the  advice  of  the  holy  patriarch  to  his  son :  Then 
Tobias  answered  his  father — /  know  not  the  may,  fyc. : — then  his 
father  said — Seek  thee  a  faithful  guide.  Tob.  v.  You  will  no 
sooner  have  sacrificed  your  own  wavering  judgment,  and  have 
submitted  to  follow  the  guide,  whom  your  heavenly  Father  has 
provided  for  you,  than  you  will  feel  a  deep  conviction  that  you 
are  in  the  right  and  secure  way ;  and  very  soon  you  will  be 


Letter  XII.  85 

enabled  to  join  with  the  happy  converts  of  ancient  and  modem 
times,*  in  this  hymn  of  praise  :  "  I  give  thee  thanks  O  God,  my 
enlightener  and  deliverer;  for  that  thou  hast  opened  the  eyes  of 
my  soul  to  know  thee.  Alas  !  too  late  have  I  known  thee,  O 
ancient  and  eternal  truth  !  too  late  have  I  known  thee." 
I  am,  Dear  Sir,  yours,  &,c. 

J.  M. 

•  St  Austin's  Soliloqiiies,  c.  33,  quoted  by  Dean  Cressy,  Exomol.  p.  656. 


THE  END 

OP 

RELIGIOUS  CONTROVERSY. 

PART  11. 

LETTER  XIII. 
To  JAMES  BROWN,  Es^rS^c, 

OJV  THE  TRUE  CHURCH. 

Dear  Sir, 
The  Letters  which  I  have  received  from  you,  and  some  others 
of  your  religious  society,  satisfy  me  that  I  have  not  ahogether 
lost  my  labour  in  endeavouring  to  prove  to  you,  that  the  private 
interpretation  of  holy  Scripture  is  not  a  more  certain  rule  of  faith, 
than  an  imaginary  private  inspiration  is ;  and,  in  short,  that  the 
church  of  Christ  is  the  only  sure  expounder  of  the  doctrine  of 
Christ.  Thus  much  you,  sir,  in  particular,  candidly  acknow- 
ledge :  but  you  ask  me,  on  the  part  of  some  of  your  friends  as 
well  as  yourself,  why,  in  case  you  "  must  rely  on  authority,"  as 
bishop  Porteus  confesses  "  the  unlearned  must,"  that  is  to  say, 
the  great  bulk  of  mankind,  you  should  not,  as  he  advises  you, 
"  rely  on  the  authority  of  that  church,  which  God's  providence 
hath  placed  you  under,  rather  than  that  of  another  which  you 
have  nothing  to  do  with,"*  and  why  you  may  not  trust  to  the 
church  of  England,  in  particular,  to  guide  you  in  your  road  to 
heaven,  with  equal  security  as  to  the  church  of  Rome  ? — Before 
I  answer  you,  permit  me  to  congratulate  with  you  on  your  ad- 
vance towards  the  clear  sight  of  the  whole  truth  of  revelation. 
As  long  as  you  professed  to  hunt  out  the  several  articles  of  this, 
one  by  one,  through  the  several  books  of  Scripture,  and  under 
all  the  difliculties  and  uncertainties  which  I4iave  clearly  shown 
to  attend  this  study,  your  task  was  interminable,  and  your  suc- 
cess hopeless  :  whereas,  now,  by  taking  the  church  of  God  for 

♦  Confutation  of  Errors  of  Popery,  p.  20. 


Letter  XIII.  87 

your  guide,  you  have  but  one  simple  inquiry  to  make  :  Which 
is  this  church  !■  a  question  that  admits  of  being  solved  by  wen 
of  good  will  with  equal  certainty  and  facility.  I  say,  there  is 
but  one  inquiry  to  be  made  :  Which  is  the  true  church  ?  because 
if  there  is  any  one  religious  truth  more  evident  than  the  rest 
from  reason,  from  the  Scriptures,  both  Old^  and  New,f  from 
the  apostles'  creed,J  and  from  constant  tradition,  it  is  this,  that 
"  the  Catholic  church  preserves  the  true  worship  of  the  Deity ; 
she  being  the  fountain  of  truth,  the  house  of  faith,  and  the  tem- 
ple of  God,"  as  an  ancient  father  of  the  churcli  expresses  it.<5> 
/Hence  it  is  as  clear  as  the  noon-day  light,  that  by  solving  thii 
I  one  question,  Which  is  the  true  church  ?  you  will  at  once  solve 
every  question  of  religious  controversy  that  over  has,  or  that 
ever  can  be  agitatedj?  You  will  not  need  to  spend  your  life  in 
studying  the  sacred  Scriptures  in  their  original  languages,  and 
their  authentic  copies,  and  in  confronting  passages  with  each 
other,  from  Genesis  to  Revelation,  a  task  by  no  means  calcu- 
lated, as  is  evident,  for  the  bulk  of  mankind  :  you  will  only 
have  to  hear  what  the  church  teaches  upon  the  several  articles 
of  her  faith,  in  order  to  know  with  certainty  what  God  revealed 
concerning  them.  Neither  need  you  hearken  to  contending 
sects,  and  doctors  of  the  present,  or  of  past  times  :  you  will  need 
only  to  hear  the  church,  which,  indeed,  Christ  commands  you 
to  hear  under  pain  of  being  treated  as  a  heathen  or  a  publican. 
Matt,  xviii.  17. 

I  now  proceed,  dear  sir,  to  your  question  ;  why,  admitting 
the  necessity  of  being  guided  by  the  church,  may  not  you  and  your 
friends  submit  to  be  guided  by  the  church  of  England,  or  any 
other  Protestant  church  to  which  you  respectively  belong  ? — My 
answer  is ;  because  no  such  church  professes,  nor,  consistently 
with  the  fundamental  Protestant  rule  of  private  judgment,  can 
profess  to  be  a  guide  in  matters  of  religion.     If  you  admit,  but 

*  Speaking  of  the  future  church  of  the  Gentiles,  the  Almighty  promises,  by 
Isaiah  :  Sing,  O  barren,  thou  that  didst  not  bear^  Sic. :  as  I  have  sworn  that  the 
waters  of  Noah  should  no  more  go  over  the  earth,  so  I  have  sworn  that  I  would  not 
be  wroth  with  thee,  nor  rebuke  thee.  For  the  mountains  shall  depart  and  the  hills 
j6e  removed,  but  my  kindness  shall  not  depart  from  thee,  Sic.  liv.  See  also  lix.  Is, 
^iii.  Jerem.  xxxiii.  Ezech.  xxxvii,  Dan.  ii.  Psalm  Ixxxix. 

t  Upon  this  rock  I  will  build  my  Church,  and  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail 
against  it.  Matt.  xvi.  18.  lam  with  you  all  days  even  until  THE  END  OF 
THE  WORLD.  Matt,  xxviii.  20.  /  will  pray  the  Father  and  he  will  give  you 
another  comforter,  that  he  may  chide  with  you  FOR  EVER,  even  the  Spirit  of 
Truth^he  will  teach  you  ALL  TRUTH,  John  xiv.  16.  &c.  The  House  of  God, 
which  is  the  Church  of  the  living  God,  THE  PILLAR  AND  GROUND  OF 
TRUTH.     1  Tim.  iii.  14. 

X  I  BELIEVE  IN  THE  HOLY  CATHOLIC  CHURCH.    Art.  rx. 

k  Lactan,  De  Divin.  Instil.  1. 4. 


88  Letter  XIII. 

for  an  instant,  church  authority,  then  Lvi.xiti,  (Jait. 
mer,  with  all  the  other  founders  of  Protestantism,  were  evidently 
heretics,  by  rebelling  against  it.  In  short,  no  other  church 
but  the  Catholic  can  claim  to  be  a  religious  guide,  because  evi- 
dently she  alone  is  the  true  church  of  Christ.  This  assertion 
leads  me  to  the  proof  of  what  I  asserted  above,  respecting  the 
facility  and  certainty  with  which  persons  of  good  will  may 
solve  that  most  important  question  :    Which  is  the  true  church  ? 

Luther,*  Calvin,f  the  church  of  England,J  assign  as  the 
characteristics,  or  marks  of  the  true  church  of  Christ,  Truth  of 
doctrine,  and  the  right  administration  of  the  sacraments.  Bui  ^. 
to  follow  this  method  of  finding  out  the  true  church,  would  be/ 
to  throw  ourselves  back  into  those  endless  controversies  con- 
cerning the  true  doctrine,  and  the  right  discipline,  which  it  is 
my  present  object  to  put  an  end  to,  by  demonstrating,  at  once, 
which  is  the  true  church.  To  show  the  inconsistency  of  the 
Protestant  method,  let  us  suppose  that  some  stranger  were  to 
inquire,  at  the  levee  of  his  neighbour,  which  of  the  personages 
present  is  the  Prince  Regent  ?  and  that  he  was  to  receive  for 
answer,  it  is  the  king^s  eldest  son :  would  this  answer,  however 
true,  be  of  any  use  to  the  inquirer  ?  Evidently  not.  Whereas, 
if  he  were  told  that  the  prince  wore  such  and  such  clothes  and 
ornaments,  and  was  seated  in  such  and  such  a  place,  these  ex- 
terior marks  would,  at  once,  put  him  in  possession  of  the  in- 
formation he  was  in  search  of.  Thus  we  Catholic^,  when  we 
are  asked,,  which  are  the  marks  of  the  true  church  ?  point  out 
certain  exterior,  visible  marks,  such  as  plain,  unlearned  persons 
can  discover,  if  they  will  take  ordinary  pains  for  this  purpose, 
no  less  than  persons  of  the  greatest  abilities  and  literature,  at 
the  same  time  that  they  are  the  very  marks  of  this  church, 
which,  as  I  said  above,  natural  reason,  the  Scriptures,  the  creeds, 
and  the  fathers,  assign  and  demonstrate  to  be  the  true  marks  of 
it. ,  *¥es,  my  dear  sir,  these  marks  of  the  true  church  are  so 
yplain  in  themselves,  and  so  evidently  point  it  out,  ih^t  fools  can- 
^^iiot  err,  as  the  prophet  foretold,  Isai.  xxxv.  8,  in  their  road  to  it. 
yThey  are  the  flaming  beacons,  which  forever  shine  on  the  moun- 
tain at  the  top  of  the  mountains  of  the  Lord^s  house.  Isai.  ii.  2.  J 
In  short,  the  particular  motives  for  credibility,  which  point  out 
ifhe  true  church  of  Christ,  demonstrate  this  wfth  no  less  certitude 
and  evidence,  than  the  general  motives  of  credibility  demon- 
strate the  truth  of  the  Christian  religion. 
'^"  The  chief  marks  of  the  true  church,  which  I  shall  here  assign, 

'        •  Pe  CoQcil.  Ecolei,  t  lostit,  1.4L  %  Art  19. 


Letter  XIIL  89 

are  not  only  conformable  to  reason,  Scripture,  and  traditioDj 
but,  which  is  a  most  fortunate  circumstance,  they  are  such  a« 
the  church  of  England,  and  most  other  respectable  denomina- 
tions of  Protestants,  acknowledge  and  profess  to  believe  in,  no 
less  than  Catholics.  Yes,  dear  sir,  they  are  contained  in  those 
Creeds  which  you  recite  in  your  daily  prayers,  and  proclaim  in 
your  solemn  worship.  In  fact,  what  do  you  say  of  the  church 
you  believe  in,  when  you  repeat  the  Apostles'  Creed  ?  You 
say,  I  BELIEVE  IN  THE  HOLY  CATHOLIC  CHURCH. 
Again,  how  is  this  church  more  particularly  described  in  the 
Nicene  Creed,  which  makes  part  of  your  public  liturgy  ?  In, 
tliis  you  say,  I  BELIEVE  IN  ONE  CATHOLIC  AND 
APOSTOLIC  CHURCH.*  Hence  it  evidently  follows  that 
the  church  which  you,  no  less  than  we,  profess  to  believe  in,  is 
possessed  of  these  four  marks :  UNITY,  SANCXLTY,  CA- 
THOLICITY,  and  APOSTOLICITY.  Ir-tT^ed  upon? 
(hen,  that  all  we  have  to  do,  by  way  of  discovering  the  true 

(church,  is  to  find  out  which  of  the  rival  churches,  or  communions^ 
is  peculiarly  ONE— HOLY— CATHOLIC— and  APOSTO- 
LIC. Thrice  happy,  dear  sir,  I  deem  it,  that  we  agree  toge- 
tfier,  by  the  terms  of  our  common  creeds,  in  a  matter  of  such 
infinite  importance  for  the  happy  termination  of  all  our  contrcp- 
versies,  as  are  these  qualities,  or  characters  of  the  true  churcl% 
which  ever  that  may  be  found  to  be  !  Still,  notwithstanding 
tliis  agreement  in  our  creeds,  I  shall  not  omit  to  illustrate  thesfl 
characters,  or  marks,  as  I  treat  of  them,  by  arguments  from  rea- 
son, Scripture,  and  the  ancient  fathers. 

I  am,  dear  sir,  &ic. 

J.  M. 


Order  of  Administration  of  the  Lord's  Supper. 
M 


(T  ofu 


LETTER  XIV. 

To  MMES  BROWJV,  Esq.  fyc. 
UjXity  of  the  church. 

Dear  Sir, 

Nothing  is  more  clear  to  natural  reason,  than  that  God 
cannot  be  the  author  of  different  religions  ;  for  being  the  Eter- 
nal Truth,  he  cannot  reveal  contradictory  doctrines,  and,  being 
at  the  same  time,  the  Eternal  Wisdom,  and  the  God  of  Peace^ 
he  cannot  establish  a  kingdom  divided  against  itself.  Hence  it 
follows,  that  the  church  of  Christ  must  be  strictly  ONE ;  one 
octrine,  one  in  ivorship,  and  one  in  government.  This  mark 
of  unity  in  the  true  church,  which  is  so  clear  from  reason,  is  still 
more  clear  from  the  following  passages  of  Holy  Writ.  Oiu* 
Saviour,  then,  speaking  of  himself,  in  the  character  of  the  goo 
shepherd,  says,  I  have  other  sheep  (the  Gentiles)  which  are  not 
of  this  fold ;  them  also  I  must  bring,  and  they  shall  hear 
voice,  and  there  shall  he  ONE  FOLD,  and  one  shepherd,  John 
X.  16.  To  the  same  effect  addressing  his  heavenly  Father,  pre- 
viously to  his  passion,  he  says,  /  pray  for  all  that  shall  believe 
in  me,  that  THEY  MAY  BE  ONE,  as  thou  Father,  art  in  me 
and  I  in  thee,  John  xvii.  20,  21.  In  like  manner  St.  Paul  em- 
phatically inculcates  the  unity  of  the  church,  where  he  writes, 
We,  being  many,  are  OJVE  BODY  in  Christ,  and  every  one 
members  one  of  another,  Rom.  xii.  5.  Again  he  writes,  There 
is  OJVE  BODY  and  one  spirit,  as  you  are  called  in  one  hope  of 
your  calling;  one  Lord,  OJVE  FAITH,  and  one  baptism. 
Ephes.  iv.  4,  5.  Conformably  to  this  doctrine,  respecting  the 
necessary  unity  of  the  church,  this  apostle  reckons  HERESIES 
among  the  sins  which  exclude /ro/^i  the  kingdom  of  God,  Gal.  v. 
20.  and  he  requires  that  a  man  who  is  a  heretic,  after  the  first 
and  second  admonition,  be  rejected.  Tit.  iii.  10. 

The  apostolicnl  fathers,  St.  Polycarp  and  St.  Ignatius,  in 
their  published  Epistles,  liold  precisely  the  same  language  on 
this  subject,  with  St.  Paul,  as  does  also  tkeir  disciple  St.  Ire- 
naeus,  who  writes  thus,  "  No  reformation  can  be  so  advantage- 
ous as  the  evil  of  schism  is  pernicious."*  The  great  light  of 
the  third  century,  St.  Cyprian,  has  left  us  a  whole  book  on  the 

•DeHter.  1.  i.  c.  3  '• 


Letter  X/T.  91 

unity  of  the  church,  in  which,  among  other  similar  passages,  he 
writes  as  follows  :  "  There  is  but  one  God,  and  one  Christ,  and 
one  faith,  and  a  people  joined  in  one  solid  body  with  the  cement 
of  concord.  This  unity  cannot  suffer  a  division,  nor  this  one 
body  bear  to  be  disjointed. — He  cannot  have  God  for  his  father, 
who  has  not  the  church  for  his  mother.  If  any  <5ne  could 
escape  the  deluge  out  of  Noah's  ark,  he  who  is  out  of  the 
church  may  also  escape.  To  abandon  the  church  is  a  crime, 
which  blood  cannot  wash  away.  Such  a  one  may  be  killed, 
but  he  cannot  be  crowned."*  In  the  fourth  century,  the  illus- 
trious St.  John  Chrysostom,  writes  thus  :  "  We  know  that  saJ- 
ration  belongs  to  the  church  alone,  and  that  no  one  can  partake 
of  Christ,  nor  be  saved  out  of  the  Catholic  church  and  faith.^'f 
The  language  of  St.  Augustin,  in  the  fifth  century,  is  equally 
strong  on  this  subject,  in  numerous  passages.  Among 
others  the  Synodical  epistle  of  the  council  of  Zerta,  in  412, 
drawn  up  by  this  saint,  tells  the  Donatist  schismatics,  "  JVho^ 
ever  is  separated  from  this  Catholic  church,  however  innocently 
he  may  think  he  lives,  for  this  crime  alone,  that  he  is  separated 
from  the  unity  of  Christ,  will  not  have  life,  but  the  anger  of  God 
remains  upon  Am."  J  Not  less  emphatical  to  the  same  effect,  is 
the  testimony  of  St.  Fulgentius  and  St.  Gregory  the  Great,  in 
the  sixth  century,  in  various  passages  of  their  writings ;  I  shall 
content  myself  with  citing  one  of  them.  "  Out  of  this  church," 
says  the  former  father,  "  neither  the  name  of  Christian  avails, 
nor  does  baptism  save,  nor  is  a  clean  sacrifice  offered,  nor  is 
there  forgiveness  of  sins,  nor  is  the  happiness  of  eternafl  life  to 
be  found. "§  In  short,  such  has  been  the  language  of  the  fa- 
thers and  doctors  of  the  church  in  all  ages,  concerning  her  es- 
sential unity,  and  the  indispensable  obligation  of  being  united  to 
her.  Such  also  have  been  the  formal  declarations  of  the  church 
Jierself  in  those  decrees,  by  which  she  has  condemned  and  ana- 

♦  Cypr.  de  Unit.  Oxon,  p.  109. 

t  Horn,  1.  in  Pasc.  ^  Concil.  IJabbe,  tom.ii.  p.  15j20. 

?  Lib.  lie  Remiss.  Peccat.  c.  23.— N.  B.  This  doctrine  concerning'  the  unity 
of  the  church,  and  the  necessity  of  adhering  to  it,  under  pain  of  damnation, 
■which  appears  so  rig^d  to  modern  Protestants,  was  almost  universally  taught  by 
their  predecessors;  as,  for  example,  by  Calvin,  1,  iv.  Instii.  1.  and  Beza- 
Confess.  Fid.  c.  v. ;  by  the  Huguenots,  in  their  Cateriiism  ;  by  the  Scotch,  in 
their  Profession  of  1568  ;  by  the  church  of  England,  Art.  18 ;  by  the  celebrated 
bishop  Pearson,  &c.  The  last  named  writes  thus :  "  Christ  never  appointed 
two  ways  to  heaven ;  nor  did  he  build  a  church,  io  save  some,  and  make  another 
institution  for  other  men's  salvation.  As  none  were  saved  from  the  deluge  but 
such  as  were  within  the  ark  of  Noah — so  none  shall  ever  escape  the  eterxial 
wrath  of  God,  which  belong  not  to  tb«J  church  of  God." — Exposit.  of  Creed, 
p.  349. 


92  Letter  XV, 

thematized  the  several  heretics  and  schismatics  that  have  dog* 
matized  in  succession,  whatever  has  been  the  quality  of  their 
errors,  or  the  pretext  for  their  disunion. 

I  am,  dear  sir,  &ic. 

J.  M. 


LETTER  XV. 
To  JAMES  BROWJV,  Esq.  8fc. 

PROTESTANT  DISUmON. 

'  Dear  Sir, 

In  the  inquiry  I  am  about  to  make  respecting  the  church  or 
society  of  Christians,  to  which  this  mark  of  unity  belongs,  it 
will  be  sufficient  for  my  purpose  to  consider,  that  of  Protest- 
ants, on  one  hand,  and  that  of  Catholics  on  the  other.  To  speak 
properly,  however,  it  is  an  absurdity  to  talk  of  the  church  or 
society  of  Protestants  ;  for  the  term  PROTESTANT  expresses 
nothing  positive,  much  less  any  union  or  association  among 
them :  it  barely  signifies  one  who  protests  or  declares  against 
some  other  person  or  persons,  thing  or  things  ;  and  in  the  pre- 
sent instance  it  signifies  those  who  protest  against  the  Catholic 
church.  Hence  there  may  be,  and  there  are,  numberless  sects 
of  Protestants,  divided  from  each  other  in  every  thing,  except 
in  opposing  their  true  mother,  the  Catholic  church.  St.  Austin 
reckons  up  ninety  heresies  which  had  protested  against  the 
church  before  his  time,  that  is,  during  the  first  four  hundred 
years  of  her  existence ;  and  ecclesiastical  writers  have  counted 
about  the  same  number,  who  rose  up  since  that  period,  down 
to  the  era  of  Luther's  protestation,  which  took  place  early  in 
the  sixteenth  century  :  whereas,  from  the  last  mentioned  era,  to 
the  end  of  the  same  century,  Staphylus  and  cardinal  Hosius 
enumerated  two  hundred  and  seventy  different  sects  of  Protest- 
ai.ts  :  and,  alas  1  how  have  Protestant  sects,%eyond  reckoning 
and  description,  mulbplied,  during  the  last  two  hundred  years  ! 
Thus  has  the  observation  of  the  above  cited  holy  father  been 
verified  in  modern,  no  \esz  than  it  was  in  former  ages,  where 
he  exclaims  :  "  Into  how  many  morsels  have  those  sects  been 
broken  who  have  divided  themselves   from  the  unity  of  *^^ 


Letter  XV.  &3 

church  !"*  You  are  not  ignorant  that  the  illustrious  Bossuet 
has  written  two  considerable  volumes  on  the  Variations  of  the 
Protestants  ;  chiefly  on  those  of  the  Lutheran  and  the  Calvin- 
istic  pedigrees.  Numerous  other  variations,  dissensions,  and 
^Tiutual  persecutions,  even  to  the  extremity  of  death, f  which 
have  taken  place  among  them,  I  have  had  occasion  to  mention 
in  my  former  letters  and  other  works.  J  I  have  also  quoted  the 
lamentations  of  Calvin,  Dudith,  and  other  heads  of  the  Pro- 
testants, on  the  subject  of  these  divisions.  You  will  recollect, 
in  particular,  what  the  latter  writes  concerning  those  diflerences; 
"  Our  people  are  carried  away  by  every  wind  of  doctrine.  Il 
you  know  what  their  belief  is  to-day,  you  cannot  tell  what  it 
will  be  to-morrow.  Is  there  one  article  of  religion,  in  which 
these  churches,  who  are  at  war  with  the  Pope,  agree  together  ? 
If  you  run  over  all  the  articles,  from  the  first  to  the  last,  you 
will  not  find  one  which  is  not  held  by  some  of  them  to  be  an 
article  of  faith,  and  rejected  by  others,  as  an  impiety."§ 

With  these  and  numberless  other  historical  facts  of  the  same 
nature  before  his  eyes,  would  it  not,  dear  sir,  I  appeal  to  your 
own  good  sense,  be  the  extremity  of  folly  for  any  one  to  lay  the 
least  claim  to  the  mark  of  unity  in  favour  of  Protestants,  or  to 
pretend  that  they  who  are  united  in  nothing  but  their  hostility 
towards  the  Catholic  church,  can  form  the  one  church  we  pro- 
fess to  believe,  in  the  creed  !  Perhaps,  however,  you  will  say, 
that  the  mark  of  unity,  which  is  wanting  among  the  endless 
divisions  of  Protestants  in  general,  may  be  found  in  the  church 
to  which  you  belong,  the  established  church  of  England.     I 

•  St.  Aug.  contra  Petolian. 

t  Luther  pronounced  the  Sacramentarians,  namely,  the  Calvinists,  Zuing^- 
lians,  and  those  Protestants  in  general,  who  denied  the  real  presence  of  Christ 
in  the  sacrament,  heretics^  and  damned  souls,  for  whom  it  is  not  lawful  to  pray. 
Epist.  ad  Arginten.  Catech.  Parv.  Comment  in  Gen.  His  followers  persecuted 
Bucer,  Melancthon's  nephew,  with  imprisonment,  and  Crellius  to  death,  for  en- 
deavouring to  soften  their  master's  doctrine  in  this  point.  Mosheim  by  Mac- 
laine,  vol.  iv.  p.  341 — 353.  Zuinglius,  while  he  deified  Hercules,  Theseus, 
&;c.  condemned  the  Anabaptists  to  be  drowned,  pronouncing  this  sentence  on 
Felix  Mans  :  "  Qui  iterum  mergunt  mergantur ;"  which  sentence  was  accord- 
ingly executed  at  Zurich.  Limborch.  Introd.  71.  Not  content  with  anathema- 
tizing and  imprisoning  those  reformers  who  dissented  from  his  system,  John 
Calvin  caused  two  of  them,  Servetus  and  Gruet,  to  be  put  to  death.  The  Pres- 
bjrterians  of  Holland  and  New-England  were  equally  intolerant  with  respect  to 
other  denominations  of  Protestants.  The  latter  hanged  four  Quakers,  one  of 
them  a  woman,  on  account  of  their  religion.  In  England  itself,  frequent  execu- 
tions of  Anabaptists  and  other  Protestants  took  place,  froaithe  reign  of  Edward 
VI.  till  that  of  Charles  I. ;  and  other  less  sanguinary  persecutions  till  the  time 
of  James  II. 

X  LETTERS  TO  A  PREBENDARY,  &c 

i  Epist.  ad  Capiton.  inter.  Epist.  Bezae. 


94  Letter  XV, 

grant,  dear  sir,  that  your  communion  has  better  pretentions  lO 
this,  and  the  other  marks  of  the  church,  than  any  other  Pro- 
testant society  has.  She  is,  as  our  controversial  poet  sings, 
**  The  least  deform'' d  because  reform'' d  the  least."*  You  will 
recollect  the  account  I  have  given,  in  a  former  letter,f  of  the 
material  changes  v\  liich  this  church  has  undergone,  at  diiierent 
times,  since  her  first  entire  formation  in  the  reign  of  the  last 
Edward,  and  which  place  her  at  variance  with  herself.  You 
will  also  remember  the  proofs  I  brought  of  Hoadlyism,  in  other 
words,  of  Socinianism^  that  danmabh  and  cursed  heresy,  as  this 
church  termed  it  in  her  last  synod,  j  against  some  of  her  most 
illustrious  bishops,  archdeacons,  and  other  dignitaries  of  modern 
times.  These  teach,  in  official  charges  to  the  clergj^,  in  con- 
secration sermons,  and  in  publications  addressed  to  the  throne, 
that  the  church  herself  is  nothing  more  than  a  voluntary  asso' 
ciation  of  certain  people  for  the  benefit  of  social  w  orship  ;  that 
they  themselves  are  in  no  other  sense  ministers  of  God  than  civil 
officers  are  ;  that  Christ  has  left  us  no  exterior  means  of  grace, 
and  that,  of  course,  baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper  (which  are 
declared  necessary  for  salvation  in  the  Catechim)  produce  no 
spiritual  effect  at  all ;  in  short,  that  all  mysteries,  and  among 
the  rest  those  of  the  trinity  and  incarnation,  (for  denying  which, 
the  prelates  of  the  church  of  England  have  sent  so  many  Arians 
to  the  stake,  in  the  reigns  of  Edward,  EHzabeth,  and  James  I.) 
are  mere  nonsense.^  "When  I  had  occasion  to  expose  this  fatal 
system,  (the  professors  of  which  Cranmer  and  Ridley  w  ould 
have  sent,  at  once,  to  the  stake,)  I  hoped  it  was  of  a  local  na- 
ture, and  that  defending,  as  I  was  in  this  point,  the  Articles  and 
Liturgy  of  the  established  church  as  well  as  my  own,  I  should, 
thus  far,  be  supported  by  its  dignitaries  and  other  learned  mem- 
bers :  I  found,  however,  the  contrary  to  be  generally  the  case,|| 
and  that  the  irreligious  infection  was  infinitely  more  extensive 
than  I  apprehended.  In  fact,  I  found  the  most  celebrated  pro- 
fessors of  divinity  in  the  universities  delivering  Dr.  Balguy's 
doctrine  to  the  young  clergy  in  their  public  lectures,  and  the 

'.     ♦  Dryden,  Hind  and  Panther.  t  Letter  viii. 

'     X  Constitutions  and  Canons,  A.  D.  1640.  Sparrow's  Collect,  p.  255. 

S  See  extracts  from  the  Sermons  of  Bishop  Iloadley,  Dr.  B0gy.y,  and  Dr. 
Stnr^es,  in  Letters  to  a  Prebendary,  Let.  viii.  The  most  perspicuous  and  ner- 
vous of  these  preachers,  unquestionably, -was  Dr.  Balguy.  See  his  Discourses 
and  Charges  preached  on  public  occasions,  and  dedicated  to  the  kin».  Lockytr 
Davis,  178.'">. 

II  That  »reat  ornament  of  the  Episcopal  bench,  Dr.  Ilorsley,  bishop  of  St. 
Asaph's,  does  not  fall  under  this  censure  ;  M  he  protected  the  present  writer, 
both  in  and  out  of  parliament. 


Letter  XV.  95 

most  enlightened  bishops  publishing  it  in  their  pastorals  and 
other  works. 

Among  these,  the  Norrisian  professor  of  theology  at  Cam- 
bridge carries  his  deference  to  the  archdeacon  of  Winchester  so 
far,  as  to  tell  his  scholars  :  "  As  I  distrust  my  own  conclusions 
more  than  his,  (Dr.  Balguy's,)  if  you  judge  that  they  are  not  re- 
concileable,  I  must  exhort  you  to  confide  in  him  rather  than 
me."*     In  fact,  his  ideas  concerning  the  mysteries  of  Chris- 
tianity, particularly  the  trinity  and  our  redemption  by  Christ, 
and  indeed  concerning  most  other  theological  points,  perfectly 
agree  with  those  of  Dr.  Balguy.     He  represents  the  difference 
between  the  members  of  the  established  church  and  the  Socini- 
ans  to  consist  in  nothing  but  "  a  few  unmeaning  words  ;"  and 
asserts,   that  "  they  need  never  be  upon  their  guard  against 
each  other."f     Speaking  of  the  custom,  as  he  calls  it,  "  in  the 
Scripture,  of  mentioning  Father ,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost  together, 
on  the  most  solemn  occasions,  of  which  baptism  is  one,"  he 
says,  "  Did  I  pretend  to  understand  what  I  say,  I  might  be   a 
Tritheist  or  an  Infidel,  but  I  could  not  worship  the  one  true 
God,    and  acknowledge   Jesus  Christ  to  be  Lord  of  all."J 
Another  learned  professor  of  divinity,  who  is  also  a  bishop  of 
the  established  church,  teaches  his  clergy  "  Not  to  esteem  any 
particular  opinion  concerning  the  trinity,  satisfaction,  and  ori- 
ginal sin,   necessary  to  salvation. "§     Accordingly,  he  equally 
absolves  the  Unitarian  from  impiety  in  refusing  divine  honour 
to  our  Blessed  Saviour,  and  "  the  worshipper  of  Jesus,"  as  he 
expresses  himself,  from  idolatry  in  paying  it  to  him,  on  the  score 
of  their  common  good  intention.\\     This  sufficiently  shows  what 
the  bishop's   own  behef  was   concerning  the  adorable  trinity, 
and  the  divinity  of  the  second  person  of  it.     I  have  given,  in  a 
former  letter,  a  remarkable  passage  from  the  above  quoted 
charge,  where  bishop   Watson,   speaking  of  the  doctrines  of 
Christianity,  says  to  his  assembled  clergy,  "  I  think  it  safer  to 
tell  you  where  they  are  contained  than  ivhat  they  are.     They 
are  contained  in  the  Bible ;  and  if,  in  reading  that  book,  your 
sentiments  should  be  different  from  those  of  your  neighbour,  or 
from  those  of  the  church,  be  persuaded  that  infallibility  apper- 
tains as  little  to  you  as  it  does  to  the  church."     I  have  else- 
where exposed  the  complete  Socinianism  of  bishop  Hoadley 

*  Lectures  in  Divinity,  delivered  in  the  university  of  Cambridge,  by  J.  Hey, 
D.  D.  as  Norrisian  professor,  in  four  volumes,  1797.  Vol.  ii.  p.  104. 
t  Vol.  ii.  p.  41.  X  ^^ol-  "•  PP-  250,  251 

i  Dr.  Watson,  bishop  of  Landa.T's  Charge,   1795. 
y  Collect,  of  Theol.  Tracts,  Pref.  p.  17. 


96  Letter  XV, 

and  his  scholars,*  among  whom  we  must  reckon  bishop  Shipley 
in  the  first  rank. 

Another  celebrated  writer,  who  was  himself  a  dignitary  of  the 
establishment,!  arguing,  as  he  does  most  powerfully,  against 
the  consistency  and  efficacy  of  public  confessions  of  faith,  among 
Protestants  of  every  denomination,  says,  that  out  of  a  hundred 
ministers  of  the  establishment,  who,  every  year,  subscribe  the 
Articles  made  "  to  prevent  diversity  of  opinions,"  he  has  reason 
to  believe  "  that  above  one-fifth  of  this  number  do  not  subscribe 
or  assent  to  these  Articles  in  one  uniform  sense. "J  He  also 
quotes  a  Right  Rev.  author  who  maintahisthat  "  No  two  think- 
ing men  ever  agreed  exactly  in  their  opinion,  even  with  regard 
to  any  one  article  of  it."§  He  also  quotes  the  famous  bishop 
Burnet,  who  says,  that  "  The  requiring  of  subscription  to  the 
Thirty-nine  Articles  is  a  great  imposition,  ||  and  that  the  greater 
part  of  the  clerg}^  subscribe  the  Articles,  without  ever  examining 
them,  and  others  do  it  because  they  must  do  it,  though  they 
can  hardly  satisfy  their  consciences  about  some  things  in  them. "IF 
He  shows  that  the  advocates  for  subscription,  Doctors  Nichols, 
Bennet,  Waterland,  and  Stebblng,  all  vindicated  it  on  opposite 
grounds  ;  and  he  is  forced  to  confess  the  same  thing,  with  re- 
spect to  the  enemies  of  subscription,  with  whom  he  himself  ranks. 
Dr.  Clark  pretends  there  is  a  salvo  in  the  subscription,  namely, 
I  assent  to  the  articles  in  as  much  as  they  are  agreeable  to  scrip- 
fttre,**  though  the  judges  of  England  have  declared  the  contra- 
ry.f  f  Dr.  Sykes  alleges  that  the  Articles  were  either  purposely 
or  negligently  made  equivocal.\X  Another  writer,  whom  he 
praises,  undertakes  to  explain  how  "  these  Articles  may  be  sub- 
scribed, and  consequently  believed,  by  a  Sabellian,  an  orthodox 
Trinitarian,  a  Tritheist,  and  an  Arian,  so  called."  After  this 
citation.  Dr.  Blackburn  shrewdly  adds :  "  One  would  wonder 
what  idea  this  writer  had  of  peace,  when  he  supposed  it  might 
be  kept  by  the  act  of  subscription  among  men  of  these  diflerent 
judgments. "§§  If  you  will  look  into  Overton's  True  Churchman 
Ascertained^  you  will  meet  with  additional  proofs  of  the  repug- 
nance of  many  other  dignitaries  and  distinguished  churchmen 
to  the  articles  of  their  own  church,  as  well  as  of  their  disagree- 
ment in  faith  among  themselves.  Hence  you  will  not  wonder 
that  a  numerous  body  of  them  should,  some  years  ago,  have 

•  Letters  to  a  Prebendary. 

t  Dr.  Blackburn,  archdeacon  of  CI eaveland,  author  of  the  Confessional. 

t  Confess.  3  Ed.  p.  45.  k  Dr.  Clayton,  bishop  of  Clogher. 

5  Confess,  p.  83.  T  P.  91.  **  P.  222.  ft  P.  183. 

X\  P.  237.  k\  P.  239. 


Letter  XV,  97 

petitioned  the  legislature  to  be  relieved  from  the  grievance,  as 
they  termed  it,  of  subscribing  these  Articles  ;"^  and  that  we 
should  continually  hear  of  the  mutilation  of  the  liturgy  by  so 
many  of  them,  to  avoid  sanctioning  tiiose  doctrines  of  their 
church,  which  they  disbelieve  and  reject,  particularly  the  Atha- 
nasian  Creed  and  the  absolution.! 

I  might  disclose  a  still  wider  departure  from  their  original 
confessions  of  faith,  and  still  more  signal  dissensions  among  the 
diflerent  dissenters,  and  particularly  among  the  old  stock  of  the 
Presbyterians  and  Independents,  if  this  were  necessary.  Most 
of  these,  says  Dr.  Jortin,  are  now  Socinians,  though  we  all 
know,  they  heretofore  persecuted  that  sect  with  fire  and  sword. 
The  renowned  Dr.  Priestly  not  only  denied  the  divinity  of 
Christ,  but  with  horrid  blasphemy,  accused  him  of  numerous 
errors,  weaknesses,  and  faults  :J  and  when  the  authority  of 
Calvin,  in  burning  Servetus,  was  objected  to  him,  he  answered, 
"  Calvin  was  a  great  man,  but,  if  a  little  man  be  placed  on  the 
shoulders  of  a  giant,  he  will  be  enabled  to  see  farther  than  the 
giant  himself"  The  doctrine  now  preached  in  the  fashionable 
Unitarian  chapels  of  the  metropolis,  I  understand,  greatly  re- 
sembles that  of  the  late  Theophilanthropists  of  France,  insti- 
tuted by  an  Infidel,  one  of  the  five  directors. 

The  chief  question,  however,  at  present  is,  whether  the  church 
of  England  can  lay  any  claim  to  the  first  character  or  mark  of 
the  true  church,  pointed  out  in  our  common  creed,  that  of 
UNITY  ?  On  this  subject  I  have  to  observe,  that  in  addition 
to  the  dissensions  among  its  members,  already  mentioned,  there 
are  whole  societies,  not  communicating  with  the  ostensible 
church  of  England,  who  make  very  strong  and  plausible  pre- 
tensions to  be,  each  of  them,  the  real  church  of  England.  Such 
are  the  Non-jurors,  who  maintain  the  original  doctrine  of  this 
church,  contained  in  tlie  Homilies  concerning  passive  obedience 
and  non-resistance,  and  who  adhere  to  the  first  ritual  of  Ed- 
ward VI. §  Such  are  the  evangelical  preachers  and  their  dis- 
ciples, who  insist  upon  it  that  pure  Calvinism  is  the  creed  of 


•  Tarticularly  in  1772. 

t  The  omission  of  the  Athanasian  Creed,  in  particular,  so  often  took  place 
in  the  public  service,  Ihat  an  act  of  parliament  has  just  passed,  among  other 
things,  to  enforce  the  repetition  of  it.  But  if  the  clergymen  alluded  to  really 
believe  that  Christ  is  not  God,  what  is  the  Legislature  doing  in  forcing  them  to 
•worship  him  as  God? 

ij:  Theolog.  Reposit.  vol.  4. 

i  To  this  church  belonged  Ken,  and  the  other  six  bishops,  who  were  deposed 
at  the  revolution.  Leslie,  Collier,  Hicks,  Bret,  and  many  other  chief  ornamenta 
of  the  church  of  England. 

N 


98  Letter  XVI. 

the  established  church.*  Finally,  such  are  the  Methodists, 
whom  professor  Hey  describes  as  forming  the  old  church  of 
England,  f  And,  even  now,  it  is  notorious  that  many  clergy- 
men preach  in  the  churches  in  the  morning,  and  in  the  meeting 
houses  hi  the  evening  ;  while  their  opulent  patrons  are  pur- 
chasing as  many  church-livings  as  they  can,  in  order  to  fill  them 
with  incumbents  of  the  same  description.  Tell  me  now,  dear 
sir,  whether,  from  this  view  of  the  state  of  the  church  of 
England,  or  from  any  other  fair  view  which  can  be  taken  of  it, 
vou  will  venture  to  ascribe  to  it  that  first  mark  of  the  true 
church,  which  you  profess  to  belong  to  her,  when,  in  the  face  of 
heaven  and  earth,  you  solemnly  declare,  /  believe  in  ONE  Ca* 
tholic  Church  ?  Say,  is  there  any  single  mark  or  principle  of 
real  unity  in  it  ?  I  anticipate  the  answers  your  candour  will 
give  to  these  questions. 

I  am,  he. 

J.  M 


LETTER  XVI. 
To  JAMES  BROWN,  Esq.  fyc 

CATHOLIC  UmTY. 

Dear  bin. 
We  have  now  to  see  whether  tnai  nrst  mark  of  the  trtha 
church,  which  we  confess  in  our  creeds,  but  which  we  have 
found  to  be  wanting  to  the  Protestant  societies,  and  even  to  the 
most  ostensible  and  orderly  of  them,  the  established  church  of 
England,  does  or  does  not  appear  in  that  principal  and  primeval 
stock  of  Christianity,  called  the  Catholic  church.  In  case  this 
church,  spread,  as  it  is,  throughout  the  various  nations  of  the 
earth,  and  subsisting,  as  it  has  done,  through  all  ages,  since  that 
of  Christ  and  his  apostles,  should  have  maintained  that  reli- 
gious wnzYy,  which  the  modern  sects,  confined  to  a  single  peo*' 

•  It  is  clear  from  the  Articles  and  Homilies,  and  still  more  from  the  persecu- 
tion of  the  asscrtors  of  free-will  in  this  country,  that  the  church  ^f  England  was 
Calvinistic  till  the  end  of  the  reign  of  James  I.  in  the  course  of  which  he  sent 
Episcopal  representatives  from  England  and  Scotland  to  the  great  Protestant 
Synod  of  Dort.  These,  in  the  name  of  their  respective  churches,  signed  that 
"  the  faithful  who  fall  into  atrocious  crimes,  do  not  forfeit  justification,  or  incur 
damnation." 

t  Vol.  ii.  p.  73. 


Letter  XVI.  ^ 

pie,  have  been  unable  to  preserve,  you  will  allow  that  it  must 
have  been  framed  by  a  consummate  Wisdom,  and  protected  by 
an  omnipotent  Providence. 

Now,  sir,  I  maintain  it,  as  a  notorious  fact,  that  this  original 
and  great  church  is,  and  ever  has  been,  strictly  ONE  in  all  the 
above-mentioned  particulars,  and  first  in  her  faith  and  terms  gf 
communion.     The  same  creeds,  namely,  the  Apostles'  Creed^V 
tlie  Nicene   Creed,   the  Athanasian  Creed,  and  the  Creed  of    J 
Pope  Pius  IV.  drawn  up  in  conformity  with  the  definitions  of  / 
the  Council  of  Trent,  are  every  where  recited  and  professed,  tof  / 
the  strict  letter ;  the  same   articles   of  faith   and  morality  are  / 
taught  in  all  our  catechisms  ;  the  same  rule  of  faith,  namely,  th^ 
revealed  Word  of  God,  contained  in  Scripture  and  tradition, 
and  the  same  expositor  and  interpreter  of  this  rule,  the  Catholic 
church  speaking  by  the  moutli  of  her  pastors,  are  admitted  and 
proclaimed  by  all  Catholics  throughout  the  four  quarters  of  the 
globe,  from  Ireland  to  Chili,  and  from  Canada  to  India.     You 
may  convince  3  ourself  of  this  any  day,  at  the  Royal  Exchange, 
by  conversing  with   intelligent  Catholic  merchants,  from  the 
several  countries   in   question.     You  may  satisfy  yourself  re- 
specting it,  even  by  interrogating  the  poor  illiterate  Irish,  and 
other  Catholic  foreigners,  who  traverse  the  countrj^  in  various 
directions.     Ask  them  their  belief  as  to  the  fundamental  articles 
of  Christianity,  the  unity  and  trinity  of  God,  the  incarnation 
and  death  of  Christ,  his  divinity,  and  atonement  for  sin  by  his 
passion  and  death,  the  necessity  of  baptism,  the  nature  of  the 
blessed    sacrament ;  question  them   on   these   and  other    such 
points,  but  with  kindness,  patience,  and  condescension,  particu- 
larly  with  respect  to  their  language  and  deliver}^  and,  I  will 
venture  to  say,  you  will  not  find  an}^  essential  variation  in  the 
answers  of  most  of  them  ;  and  much  less  such  as  you  will  find 
by  proposing  the   same  questions  to  an  equal  number  of  Pro- 
testants, whether  learned  or  unlearned,  of  the  self-same  deno- 
mination.   At  all  events,  the  Catholics,  if  properly  interrogated, 
will  confess  their  belief  in  one  comprehensive  article  ;  namely, 
this,  I  believe  ivhatever  the  holy   Catholic  church  believes  and 
teaches. 

Protestant  divines,  at  the  present  day,  excuse  their  dissent 
from  the  Articles  which  the}'  subscribe  and  swear  to,  by  rea- 
son of  their  alleged  antiquity  and  obsoleteness,*  though  none 
of  them  are  yet  quite  two  centuries  and  a  half  old,f  and  they 

•  Dr.  Hey's  Lectures  on  Divinity,  vol.  ii.  pp.  49,  50,  51,  &c. 
t  The  39  Articles  were  drawn  ip  156'?^  and  con^rmed  by  the  queen  wd  tilt 
buhops  in  107  i* 


100  Letter  XVL 

feel  no  difficulty  in  avowing  that  "  a  tacit  reformation,"  since 

the  first  pretended  reformation,  has  taken  place  among  them.* 

This  alone  is  a  confession  that  their  church  is  not  one  and  the 

same;  whereas  all  Catholics  believe  as  firmly  in  the  doctrinal 

decisions  of  the  council  of  Nice,  passed  fifteen  hundred  years 

ago,  as  they  do  in  those  of  the  council  of  Trent,  confirmed  in 

/f'564,  and  other  still  more  recent  decisions  ;  because  the  Catho- 

^    lie  church,  like  its  divine  Founder,  is  the  same  yesterday,  to-day, 

\    and  for  ever.     Heb.  xiii.  8. 

\  Nor  is  it  in  her  doctrine  only,  that  the  Catholic  church  is 
\one  and  the  same;  she  is  also  uniform  in  whatever  is  essentia 
"in  her  liturgy.  In  every  part  of  the  world,  she  oflers  up  the 
same  unbloody  sacrifice  of  the  holy  mass,  which  is  her  chief  act 
of  divine  worship  ;  she  administers  the  same  seven  sacraments, 
provided  by  infinite  wisdom  and  mercy  for  the  several  wants  of 
the  faithful ;  the  great  festivals  of  our  redemption  are  kept 
holy  on  the  same  days,  and  the  apostolical  fast  of  Lent  is  every 
where  proclaimed  and  observed.  In  short,  such  is  the  unity  of 
the  Catholic  church,  that  when  Catholic  priests  or  laymen, 
landing  at  one  of  the  neighbouring  ports,  from  India,  Canada, 
ur  Brazil,  come  to  my  chapel,f  I  find  them  capable  of  joining 
with  me  in  every  essential  part  of  the  divine  service. 

Lastly,  as  a  regular,  miiform,  ecclesiastical  constitution  and 
government,  and  a  due  subordination  of  its  members,  are  re- 
quisite to  constitute  a  uniform  church,  and  to  preserve  unity  of 
doctruie  and  liturgy  in  it,  so  these  are  undeniably  evident  in  the 
Catholic  church,  and  in  her  alone.  She  is,  in  the  language  of 
St.  Cyprian,  "  The  habitation  of  peace  and  unity,"J  and  in 
that  of  the  inspired  text,  like  an  army  in  battle  array. '^  Spread, 
as  the  Catholics  are,  over  the  face  of  the  earth,  according  to 
my  former  observation,  and  disunited,  as  they  are  in  every 
other  respect,  they  form  one  uniform  body  in  the  order  of  re- 
ligion. Whether  roaming  in  the  plains  of  Paraguay,  or  con- 
fijied  in  the  palaces  of  Pekin,  each  simple  Catholic,  in  point  of 
ecclesiastical  economy,  is  subject  to  his  pastor ;  each  pastor 
submits  to  his  bishop,  and  each  bishop  acknowledges  the  supre- 
macy of  the  successor  of  St.  Peter,  in  matters  of  faith,  morality, 
and  spiritual  jurisdiction.  In  case  of  error,  or  insubordination, 
which,  from  the  frailty  and  malice  of  the  human  htart,  must, 
ii'Om  time  to  time,  disturb  her,  there  are  found  canons  and  ec- 
clesiastical tribunals,  and  judges,  to  correct  and  put  an  end  to 

•  Hey,  p.  48. 

t  At  Winchester,  where  the  writer  resided  when  this  letter  was  written. 

%  "  Domiciliwm  pacjs  ©t  uuitatis."  St.  Cyp,  t  Cant.vi.  4. 


Letter  XVI,  101 

the  evil,  while  similar  evils  in  other  religious  societies  are  found 
to  be  interminable. 

I  have  said  little  or  nothing  of  the  varieties  of  Protestants  in 
regard  to  their  liturgies  and  ecclesiastical  governments,  be- 
cause these  matters  being  very  intricate  and  obscure,  as  well  as 
diversified,  would  lead  me  too  far  a-field  for  my  present  plan. 
It  is  sufficient  to  remark,  that  the  numerous  Protestant  sects 
expressly  disclaim  any  union  with  each  other  in  these  points. 
That  a  great  proportion  of  them  reject  every  species  of  liturgy 
and  ecclesiastical  government  whatever,  and  that,  in  the  church 
of  England  herself,  very  many  of  her  dignitaries,  and  other  dis- 
tinguished members,  express  their  pointed  disapprobation  of 
certain  parts  of  her  liturgy,  no  less  than  of  her  Articles,*  and 
that  none  of  them  appear  to  stand  in  awe  of  any  authority,  ex- 
cept that  which  is  enforced  by  the  civil  power.  Upon  a  review 
of  the  whole  matter  of  Protestant  disunion  and  Catholic  unity, 
I  am  forced  to  repeat  with  TertuUian,  "  It  is  the  character  of 
error  to  vary ;  but  when  a  tenet  is  found  to  be  one  and  the 
same  among  a  great  variety  of  people,  it  is  to  be  considered  not 
as  an  error  but  as  a  divine  tradition."f 

I  am,  dear  sir,  &ic. 

J.  M. 


♦  Archdeacon  Paley  very  naturally  complains,  that  "  the  doctrine  of  the 
Articles  of  the  church  of  England,"  which  he  so  pointedly  objects  to,  "  are 
interwoven,  with  much  industry,  into  her  forms  of  public  worship."  I  have 
not  met  with  a  Protestant  bishop,  or  other  eminent  divine,  from  archbishop 
Tillotson  down  to  the  present  bishop  of  Lincoln,  who  approves  altogether  of  the 
Athanasian  Creed,  which,  however,  is  appointed  to  be  said  or  sung  on  thirteen 
chief  festivals  in  the  year. 

t  De  Prascrip,  contra  Haer.  The  famous  bishop  Jewel,  in  excuse  for  the 
acknowledged  variations  of  his  own  church,  objects  to  Catholics  that  there  are 
varieties  in  theirs  ;  namely,  some  of  the  friars  are  dressed  in  black,  and  some  in 
white,  and  some  in  blue  :  that  some  of  them  live  on  meat,  and  some  on  fish,  and 
some  on  herbs  :  they  have  also  disputes  in  their  schools,  as  Dr.  Porteus  also  re- 
marks ;  but  they  both  omit  to  mention,  that  these  disputes  are  not  about  articles 
of  «aitb. 


[  102] 

LETTER  XVII. 

From  JAMES  BROWN,  Esq,  fyc. 

OBJECTION'S  TO  THE  CLAIM  OF  EXCLUSIVE  SALVATION. 

Reverend  Sir, 
I  AM  too  much  taken  up  myself  with  the  present  subject  of 
your  letters,  willingly  to  interrupt  the  continuation  of  them : 
.but  some  of  the  gentlemen,  who  frequent  New  Cottage,  having 
communicated  your  three  last  to  a  learned  dignitary  who  is 
upon  a  visit  in  our  neighbourhood,  and  he  having  made  certain 
remarks  upon  them,  I  have  been  solicited  by  those  gentlemen 
to  forward  them  to  you.  The  terms  of  our  correspondence 
render  an  apology  from  me  unnecessary,  and  still  more  the 
conviction  that  I  believe  you  entertain  of  my  being,  with  sincere 
respect  and  regard, 

Rev.  Sir,  &;c. 

JAMES  BROWN. 

Extract  of  a  Letter  from  the  Rev.  JV.  JV.  Prebendary  ofJV.  to 

Mr.  JV, 

It  is  well  known  to  many  Roman  Catholic  gentlemen,  with 
whom  1  have  lived  in  habits  of  social  intercourse,  that  I  was  al- 
ways a  warm  advocate  for  their  emancipation,  and  that,  so  far  from 
having  any  oljjections  to  their  religion,  I  considered  their  hopes 
of  future  bliss  as  well  founded  as  my  own.  In  return,  I  thought 
I  saw  in  them  a  corresponding  liberality  and  charity.  But 
these  letters  which  you  have  sent  me  from  the  correspondent  of 
your  society  at  Winchester,  have  quite  disgusted  me  with  their 
bigotry  and  uncharitableness.  In  opposition  to  the  Chrysos- 
tomes  and  Augustines,  whom  he  quotes  so  copiously,  for  his 
doctrine  of  exclusive  salvation,  I  will  place  a  modern  bishop  of 
my  church,  no  way  inferior  to  them.  Dr.  Watson,  who  says, 
**  Shall  we  never  be  freed  from  the  narrow-minded  contentions 
of  bigots,  and  from  the  insults  of  men  who  know  i%t  what  spirit 
they  are  of  when  they  stint  the  Omnipotent  in  the  exercise  of 
his  mercy,  and  bar  the  doors  of  heaven  against  every  sect  but 
their  own  ?  Shall  we  never  learn  to  think  more  humbly  of  our- 
selves and  less  despicably  of  others  ;  to  believe  that  the  Father 
of  the  Universe  accommodates  not  his  judgments  to  the  wretch- 


Letter  XVUt  103 

ed  wranglings  of  pedantic  theologues ;  but  that  every  one,  who, 
with  an  honest  intention,  and  to  the  best  of  his  abilities,  seeketli 
truth,  whether  he  findeth  it  or  not,  and  worketh  righteousness, 
will  be  accepted  of  by  him  ?"*  These,  sir,  are  exactly  my 
sentiments,  as  they  were  those  of  the  illustrious  Hoadley,  in  his 
celebrated  sermon,  which  had  the  eflect  of  stifling  most  of  the 
remaining  bigotry  in  the  established  church.f  There  is  not 
any  prayer  which  I  more  frequently  or  fervently  repeat  than 
that  of  the  liberal  minded  poet,  who  himself  passed  for  a  Roman 
Catholic,  particularly  the  following  stanza  of  it : 

*'  Let  not  this  weak  and  erring  hand 
Presume  thy  bolts  to  throw, 
And  deal  damnation  round  the  land 
On  each  I  judge  thy  foe."| 

I  hope  your  society  will  require  its  Popish  correspondent,  be- 
fore he  writes  any  more  letters  to  it  on  other  subjects,  to  answer 
what  our  prelate  and  his  own  poet  have  advanced  against  the 
bigotry  and  uncharitableness  of  excluding  Christians  of  any 
denomination  from  the  mercies  of  God  and  everlasting  happi- 
ness. He  may  assign  whatever  marks  he  pleases  of  the  true 
church,  but  I,  for  my  part,  shall  ever  consider  charity  as  the 
only  sure  mark  of  this,  conformably  with  what  Christ  says  :  By 
this  shall  all  know  that  ye  are  my  disciples,  if  ye  have  love  one 
to  another,     John  xiii.  35. 


LETTER  XVIII. 
To  JAMES  BROWJV,  Esq.  ^-c. 

OBJECTION'S  ANSWERED, 

Dear  Sir, 
xN  answer  to  the  objections  of  the  Reverend  prebendary  to 
my  letters  on  the  mark  of  unity  in  the  true  church,  and  the  ne- 

•  Bishop  Watson's  Theolog.  Tracts,  ?ref.  p.  17. 

t  Bishop  Hoadley's  Sermon  on  the  Kingdom  of  Christ.  This  made  the  choice 
of  religions  a  thing  indifferent,  and  subjected  the  whole  business  of  religion  to 
the  civil  power.  Hence  sprung  the  famous  Bangorian  Controversy,  which, 
when  on  the  point  of  ending  in  a  censure  upon  Hoadley  from  the  Convocation, 
•^6  latter  was  interdicted  by  ministry,  and  has  never  since,  in  the  course  of  a. 
(ttndred  years,  been  allowed  to  meet  again. 

t  Pope's  Universal  Prayer. 


104  Letter  XVIIL 

eesslty  of  being  incorporated  in  tliis  church,  I  must  observe,  lo 
the  first  place,  that  nothing  disgusts  a  reasoning  divine  more 
than  vague  charges  of  bigotry  and  intolerance,  inasmuch  as  they 
have  no  distinct  meaning,  and  are  equally  appHed  to  all  sects 
and  individuals,  by  otliers,  whose  religio'as  opinions  are  more 
lax  than  their  own.  These  odious  accusations  which  your 
churchmen  bring  against  Catholics,  the  Dissenters  bring  against 
you,  who  are  equally  loaded  with  them  by  Deists,  as  these  are, 
in  their  turn,  by  Atheists  and  Materialists.  Let  us  then,  dear 
sir,  in  the  serious  discussions  of  religion,  confine  ourselves  to 
language  of  a  defined  meaning,  leaving  vague  and  tinsel  terms 
to  poets  and  novelists. 

It  seems,  then,  that  bishop  Watson,  with  the  Rev.  N.  N.  and 
other  fashionable  latitudinarians  of  the  day,  are  indignant  at 
the  idea  of  "  stinting  the  Omnipotent  in  the  exercise  of  his 
mercy,  and  barring  the  doors  of  heaven  against  any  sect," 
however  heterodox  or  impious.  Nevertheless,  in  the  very  pas- 
sage which  I  have  quoted,  they  themselves  stint  this  mercy  to 
those  who  "  work  righteousness,"  which  implies  a  restraint  on 
men's  passions.  JVIethinks  I  now  hear  some  epicure  Dives  or 
elegant  libertine  retorting  on  these  liberal,  charitable,  divines,  in 
their  own  words.  Pedantic  theologues,  narrow  minded  bigots, 
who  stint  the  Omnipotent  in  the  exercise  of  his  mercy,  and  bar 
the  doors  of  heaven  against  me,  for  following  the  impulse  which 
he  himself  has  planted  in  me  !  The  same  language  may,  with 
equal  justice,  be  put  into  the  mouth  of  Nero,  Judas  Iscariot,  and 
of  the  very  demons  themselves.  Thus,  in  pretending  to  mag- 
nify God's  mercy,  these  men  would  annihilate  his  justice,  his 
sjuictity,  and  his  veracity !  Our  business,  then,  is,  not  to  form 
arbitrary  theories  concerning  the  divine  attributes,  but  to  attend 
to  what  he  himself  has  revealed  concerning  them  and  the  exer- 
cise of  them.  What  w  ords  can  be  more  express  than  those  of 
Christ,  on  this  point,  He  that  believeth  and  is  baptized  shall  be 
saved  ;  but  he  that  believeth  not  shall  be  damned  !  Mark  xvi.  16, 
or  than  those  of  St.  Paul  :  Without  faith  it  is  impossible  to 
please  God,  Heb.  xi.  6.  Conformably  to  this  doctrine,  the 
same  apostle  classes  heresies  with  murder  and  adultery  ;  con- 
cerning which  he  says,  they  who  do  such  things  shall  not  inherit 
the  kingdom  of  God,  Gal.  v.  20,  21.  Accordingly^  he  orders 
that  a  man,  who  is  a  heretic,  shall  be  rejected.  Tit.  iii.  10,  and 
the  apostle  of  charity,  St.  John,  forbids  the  faithful  to  receive 
him  into  their  houses  ;  or  even  to  bid  him  God  speed  ivho  bring" 
eth  not  this  doctrine  of  Christ,  2  John  i.  10.  This  apostle  acted 
up  to  his  rule,  with  respect  to  the  treatment  of  persons  out  of 


Letter  XVIIL  105 

the  church,  when  he  hastily  withdrew  from  a  public  building, 
in  which  he  met  the  heretic  Cerinthus,  "  lest,"  as  he  said,  "  it 
should  fall  down  upon  him."* 

I  have  given,  in  a  former  letter,  some  of  the  numberless  pas- 
sages in  which  the  holy  fathers  speak  home  to  the  present 
point,  and,  as  these  are  far  more  expressive  and  emphatical  than 
what  I  myself  have  said  upon  it,  I  presume  they  have  chiefly 
contributed  to  excite  the  bile  of  the  Rev.  prebendary.  How- 
ever he  may  slight  these  venerable  authorities,  yet,  as  I  am 
sure  that  you,  sir,  reverence  them,  I  will  add  two  more  such 
quotations,  on  account  of  their  peculiar  appositeness  to  the  pre- 
sent point,  from  the  great  doctor  of  the  fifth  century,  St.  Au- 
gustine. He  says :  "  All  the  assemblies,  or  rather  divisions, 
who  call  themselves  churches  of  Christ,  but  which,  in  fact,  have 
separated  themselves  from  the  congregation  of  unity,  do  not 
belong  to  the  true  church.  They  might  indeed  belong  to  her, 
if  the  Holy  Ghost  could  be  divided  against  himself :  but  as  this 
is  impossible,  they  do  not  belong  to  her."f  In  like  manner, 
addressing  himself  to  certain  sectaries  of  his  time,  he  says  :  "  If 
our  communion  is  the  church  of  Christ,  yours  is  not  so  ;  for  the 
church  of  Christ  is  one,  whichsoever  she  is ;  since  it  is  said  of 
her,  My  dove,  my  undejiled  is  one ;  she  is  the  only  one  of  her 
mother.''^     Cantic.  v'l.  9. 

But,  setting  aside  Scripture  and  tradition,  let  us  consider 
this  matter,  as  bishop  Watson  and  his  associates  affect  to  do,  on 
the  side  of  natural  reason  alone.  These  modern  philosophers 
think  it  absurd  to  suppose  that  the  Creator  of  the  Universe 
concerns  himself  about  what  we  poor  mortals  do  or  do  not  be- 
lieve ;  or,  as  the  bishop  expresses  himself,  that  he  "  accommo- 
dates his  judgments  to  the  wrangling  of  pedantic  theologues." 
With  equal  plausibility  certain  ancient  philosophers  have  repre- 
sented it  as  unworthy  the  Supreme  Being  to  busy  himself  about 
the  actions  of  such  reptiles  as  we  are  in  his  sight ;  and  thus 
have  opened  a  door  to  an  unrestrained  violation  of  his  eternal 
and  immutable  laws  !  In  opposition  to  both  these  schools,  I 
maintain,  as  the  clear  dictates  of  reason,  that  as  God  is  the  au- 
thor, so  he  is  necessarily  the  supreme  Lord  and  Master  of  all 
beings,  with  their  several  powers  and  attributes,  and  therefore 
of  those  noble  and  distinguishing  faculties  of  the  human  soul, 
reason  and  free  ivill ;  that  he  cannot  divest  himself  of  this  su^ 
preme  dominion,  or  render  any  being  or  any  faculty  indepen-« 
dent  of  himself  or  of  his  high  laws,  any  more  than  he  can  cease  to 

•  S.  Iren.  1.  iii.  Euseb.  Hist.  1.  iii.         t  De  Verb.  Dow.  Ser«.  q, 

O 


106  Letter  XVIIL 

be  God  ;  that,  of  course,  he  does  and  must  require  our  reason 
to  believe  in  his  divine  revelations,  no  less  than  our  will  to  sub- 
mit to  his  supreme  commands  ;  that  he  is  just,  no  less  than  he 
is  merciful,  and  therefore  that  due  atonement  must  be  made  to 
liim  for  every  act  of  disobedience  to  him,  whether  by  disbeliev- 
ing what  he  has  said,  or  by  disobeying  what  he  has  ordered. 
I  advance  a  step  further,  in  opposition  to  the  Hoadley  and 
Watson  school,  by  asserting,  as  a  self-evident  truth,  that  there 
being  a  more  deliberate  and  formal  opposition  to  the  Most 
High,  in  saying,  I  will  7iot  believe  what  thou  hast  revealed,  thdm 
in  saying,  /  will  not  practice  what  thou  hast  commanded,  so, 
ceteris  jmrihus,  WILFUL-infidelity  and  heresy  involve  greater 
guilt  than  immoral  frailty. 

You  will  observe,  dear  sir,  that  in  the  preceding  passage,  I 
have  marked  the  word  wilful ;  because  Catholic  divines  and 
the  holy  fithers,  at  the  same  time  that  they  strictly  insist  on  the 
necessity  of  adhering  to  the  doctrine  and  communion  of  the  Ca- 
tholic church,  make  an  express  exception  in  favour  of  what  is 
termed  invincible  ignorance,  which  occurs,  when  persons  out  of 
the  true  church  are  sincerely  and  firmly  resolved,  in  spite  of  all 
worldly' allurements  on  one  hand,  and  opposition  to  the  con- 
trary on  the  other,  to  ^ntcr  into  it,  if  they  could  find  it  out,  and 
when  they  use  their  best  endeavours  for  this  purpose.  This 
exception,  in  favour  of  the  invincibly  ignorant,  is  made  b}'  the 
same  St.  Austin  who  so  strictly  insists  on  the  general  rule,  H\5 
words  are  these :  '*  The  apostle  has  told  us  to  rejee^  a  man  thai 
is  a  heretic:  but  those  who  defend  a  false  opinion,  without  per^ 
tinacious  obstinacy,  especially  if  they  have  not  themselves  in- 
vented it,  but  have  derived  it  from  their  parents,  and  who  seek 
the  truth  with  anxious  solicitude,  being  sincerely  disposed  to  re-< 
nounce  their  error  as  soon  as  they  discover  it,  such  person?,  are- 
not  to  be  deemed  heretics."*  Our  great  controvertist,  Bt  i'ar- 
mine,  asserts,  that  such  Christians,  '^  in  virtue  of  the  disposition 
of  their  hearts,  belong  to  the  Catholic  church. "f 

Who  the  individuals,  exteriorly  of  other  communions,  but  by 
the  sincerity  of  their  dispositions,  belonging  to  the  Catholic 
church,  who,  and  in  what  numbers  they  are,  it  is  for  the  Search'^ 
er  of  hearts,  our  future  Judge,  alone  to  determine  :  far  be  it 
from  me,  and  from  Qwn-y  other  Cadiolic,  to  <'  deal^amuation** 
on  any  person  in  particular :  still  thus  much,  on  the  grounds 
already  stated,  I  am  bound,  not  only  in  truth,  but  also  in  chari- 
ty, to  say  and  to  proclaim,  that  nothing  short  of  the  sincere  dis« 

♦  Epist,ad  Episc,  Donat.  t  Contrpv.  torn-  ".lib.  jii,  c.  6. 


Letter  XVITI.  107 

))Ositlon  in  question,  and  the  actual  use  of  such  means  as  Pro- 
vidence respectively  aftbrds  for  discovering  the  true  church  to 
those  who  are  out  of  it^  can  secure  their  salvation ;  to  say  no- 
thing of  the  Catholic  sacraments  and  other  helps  for  this  pur- 
pose, of  which  such  persons  are  necessarily  deprived. 

I  just  mentioned  the  virtue  of  charity  ;  and  1  must  here  add, 
that  on  no  one  point  are  latitudinarians  and  genuine  Catholics 
more  at  variance  than  upon  this.  The  former  consider  them- 
selves charitable,  in  proportion  as  they  pretend  to  open  the 
gat€  of  heaven  to  a  greater  number  of  religionists  of  various 
descriptions  :  but,  unfortunately,  they  are  not  possessed  of  the 
keys  of  that  gate;  and  when  they  fancy  they  have  opened  the 
gate  as  wide  as  possible,  it  still  remains  as  narrow,  and  the  way 
to  it  as  strait,  as  our  Saviour  describes  these  to  be  in  the  Gospel, 
Mat.  vii.  14.  Thus  they  lull  men  into  a  fatal  indifference 
about  the  truths  of  revelation,  and  a  false  security  as  to  their 
salvation.  Genuine  CathoUcs,  on  the  other  hand,  are  persuad- 
ed, that  as  there  is  but  one  God,  one  faith,  and  one  baptism^ 
Ephes.  iv,  5.  so  there  is  but  ONE  SHEEP-FOLD,  namely, 
ONE  CHURCH.  Hence,  they  omit  no  opportunity  of  alarm- 
ing their  wandering  brethren  on  the  danger  they  are  in,  and  of 
bringing  them  into  this  onefold  of  the  one  Shepherd,  John  x.  16. 
To  form  a  right  judgment  in  this  case,  we  need  but  ask.  Is  it 
charitable  or  uncharitable  in  the  physician,  to  warn  his  patient 
of  his  danger  in  eating  unwholesome  food  ?  Again,  is  it  cha- 
ritable or  uncharitable  in  the  watchman  who  sees  the  sword  com- 
ing to  sound  the  trumpet  of  alarm  ?  Ezech.  xxxiii.  6. 

But  to  conclude,  the  Rev.  prebendary,  with  most  modern 
Protestants,  may  continue  to  assign  his  latitudinarianism,  which 
admits  all  religions  to  be  right,  thus  dividing  truth,  that  is  essen- 
tially indivisible,  as  a  mark  of  the  truth  of  his  sect ;  in  the 
meantime,  the  Catholic  church  ever  will  maintain,  as  she  ever 
has  maintained,  that  there  is  only  one  faith  and  one  true  church, 
and  that  this  her  uncompromising  firmness,  in  retaining  and 
professing  this  unity,  is  the  first  mark  of  her  being  this  church. 
The  subject  admits  of  being  illustrated  by  the  well  known  judg- 
ment of  the  wisest  of  men.  Two  women  dwelt  together,  each 
of  whom  had  an  infant  son  ;  but,  one  of  these  dying,  they  both 
contended  for  possession  of  the  living  child,  and  carried  their 
cause  to  the  tribunal  of  Solomon.  He,  finding  them  equally 
contentious,  ordered  the  infant  they  disputed  about  to  be  cut  in 
two,  and  one-half  of  it  to  be  given  to  each  of  them  5  which  order 
the  pretended  mother  agreed  to,  exclaiming.  Let  it  be  neither 
mine  nor  thine,  but  divide  it.     Then  spake  the  woman,  whose  the 


iOB  Letter  XIX. 

living  child  was,  unto  the  king;  for  her  bowels  yearned  upon 
her  son,  and  she  said,  O,  my  lord,  give  her  the  living  child,  and 
in  no  wise  slay  it.  Then  the  king  answered  and  said,  Give  her 
the  livimr  child,  and  in  no  wise  slay  it  ;  SHE  IS  THE  MO^ 
THER  THEREOF !     1  Kings  iii.  26,  27. 

I  am,  Dear  Sir,  he. 

J.  M. 


LETTER  XIX. 

To  JAMES  BROWN,  Esq.  Src. 

0^'  SAJiCTITY  OF  DOCTRIKE. 

Dear  Sir, 

The  second  mark  by  which  you,  as  well  as  I,  describe  the 
church  in  which  you  believe,  when  you  repeat  the  Apostles' 
Creed,  is  that  of  SANCTITY:  we,  each  ol'us,  say,  I  believe 
in  the  HOLY  Catholic  church.  Reason  itself  tells  us,  that  the 
God  of  purity  and  sanctity  could  not  institute  a  religion  desti- 
tute of  this  character ;  and  the  inspired  apostle  assures  us,  that 
Christ  loved  the  church,  and  gave  himself  for  it  ;  that  he  might 
sanctify  and  cleanse  it,  with  the  washing  of  water,  by  the  Word  ; 
that  he  might  present  it  to  himself  a  glorious  church,  n»t  having 
spot  or  wrinkle.  Ephes.  v.  25.  27.  The  comparison  which  I 
am  going  to  institute  between  the  Catholic  church  and  the 
leading  Protestant  societies  in  the  article  of  sanctity,  will  be 
made  on  these  four  heads  :  1st.  The  doctrine  of  holiness  ;  2dly. 
The  means  of  holiness  ;  3dly.  The  fruits  of  holiness  ;  and, 
lastly,  The  divine  testimony  of  holiness. 

To  consider,  first,  the  doctrine  of  the  chief  Protestant  com- 
munions :  this  is  well  known  to  have  been  originally  grounded 
in  the  pernicious  and  impious  principles,  that  God  is  the  author 
and  necessitating  cause,  as  well  as  the  everlasting  punisher,  o 
sin  ;  that  man  has  no  free  will  to  avoid  sin  ;  and  that  justi 
iication  and  salvation  are  the  effects  of  an  enthusiastic  per- 
suasion, under  the  name  of  faith,  tliat  the  person  is  actually 
justified  and  saved,  without  any  real  belief  in  the  Revealed 
truths,  without  hope,  charity,  repentance  for  sin,  benevo- 
lence to  our  fellow-creatures,  loyalty  to  our  king  and  coun- 
try, or  any  other  virtues,  all  which  were  censured  by  the  first 
reformers,  as  they  are  by  the  strict  Methodists  still,  under  the 


Letter  XIX,  100 

name  of  works,  and  by  many  of  them  declared  to  be  even  hurt- 
ful to  salvation.  It  is  asserted,  in  the  Harmony  of  Confessions, 
a  celebrated  work,  published  in  the  early  times  of  the  Reformi 
tion,  that  "  all  the  confessions  of  the  Protestant  churches  teacL 
this  primary  article  (of  justification)  with  a  holy  consent;" 
whicli  seems  to  imply,  says  archdeacon  Blackburn,  "  that  this 
was  the  single  article  in  which  they  all  did  agree."*  Bishop 
Warburton  expressly  declares,  that  *'  Protestantism  was  built 
upon  it  :"f  and  yet,  "  what  impiety  can  be  more  execrable," 
we  may  justly  exclaim  with  Dr.  Balguy,  "  than  to  make  God 
a  tyrant  !"J  And  what  lessons  can  be  taught  more  immoral, 
than  that  men  are  not  required  to  repent  of  their  sins  to  obtain 
their  forgiveness,  nor  to  love  either  God  or  man  to  be  sure  of 
their  salvation ! 

To  begin  with  the  father  of  the  Reformation,  Luther  teaches 
that  "  God  works  the  evil  in  us  as  well  as  the  good,"  and  that 
"  the  great  perfection  of  faith  consists  in  believing  God  to  be 
just,  although,  by  his  own  ivill,  he  necessarily  renders  us  worthy 
of  damnation^  so  as  to  seem  to  take  pleasure  in  the  torments  of  the 
miserable,^^^  Again  he  says,  and  repeats  it,  in  his  work  De 
Servo  Arhitrio,  and  his  other  works,  that  "  free  will  is  an  empty 
name  ;"  adding,  "  If  God  foresaw  that  Judas  would  be  a  trai- 
tor, Judas  necesmrily  became  a  traitor  :  nor  was  it  in  his  power 
to  be  otherwise."",!  "  Man's  will  is  like  a  horse  :  if  God  sit 
upon  it,  it  goes  as  God  would  have  it ;  if  the  devil  ride  it,  it 
goes  as  the  devil  would  have  it :  nor  can  the  will  choose  its  ri- 
der, but  each  of  them  strives  which  shall  get  possession  of  it. "IF 
Conformably  to  this  system  of  necessity  he  teaches,  "  Let  this 
be  your  rule  in  interpreting  the  Scriptures  ;  whenever  they 
command  any  good  work,  do  you  understand  that  they  forbid 
it,  because  you  cannot  perform  it."**  "  Unless  faith  be  without 
the  least  good  work,  it  does  not  justify  :  it  is  not  faith."f  f  *'  See 
how  rich  a  Christian  is,  since  he  cannot  lose  his  soul,  do  what 
he  will,  unless  he  refuses  to  believe :  for  no  sin  can  damn  him 
but  unbelief."Jf  Luther's  favourite  disciple  and  bottle  com- 
panion, Amsdorf,  whom  he  made  bishop  of  Nauburg,  wrote  a 
book,  expressly  to  prove  that  good  works  are  not  only  unneces- 
sary, but  that  they  are  hurtful  to  salvation ;  for  which  doctrine 

*  Archdeacon  Blackburn's  Confessional,  p.  16. 

t  Doctrine  of  Grace,  cited  by  Overton,  p.  31. 

^  Discourse?,  p.  59. 

i  Luth.  Opera,  ed.  Wittetnb.  torn.  ii.  fol.  437. 
11  Dp  Serv.  Arbit.  fol.  460.  IT  Ibid.  torn.  ii. 

^^  Ihid.  torn.  iii.  fol.  /7l.  tt  Ibid.  torn.  i.  fol.  361. 

iX  De  Captiv.  Babyl.  torn.  ii.  fol.  74. 


110  Letter  XIX. 

he  quotes  his  master's  works  at  large.*  Luther  himself  made 
so  great  account  of  this  part  of  his  system  which  denies  free 
will,  and  the  utility  and  possibility  of  good  works,  that,  writing 
against  Erasmus  upon  it,  he  affirms  it  to  be  the  hinge  on  which 
the  whole  turns,  declaring  the  questions  about  the  Pope's  su- 
premacy, purgatory,  and  indulgences,  to  be  trifles,  rather  than 
subjects  of  controversy.!  In  a  former  letter  I  quoted  a  re- 
markable passage  from  this  patriarch  of  Protestantism,  in  which 
he  pretends  to  prophesy  that  this  article  of  his,  shall  subsist  for 
ever,  in  spite  of  all  the  emperors,  Popes,  kings,  and  devils ; 
concluding  thus  :  "  If  they  attempt  to  weaken  this  article,  may 
hell-fire  be  their  reward;  let  this  be  taken  for  an  inspiration  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  made  to  me,  Martin  Luther." 

However,  in  spite  of  these  prophecies  and  curses  of  their  fa- 
;her,  the  Lutherans  in  general,  as  I  have  before  noticed,  shock- 
id  at  the  impiety  of  this  his  primary  principle,  soon  abandoned 
it,  and  even  went  over  to  the  opposite  impiety  of  Semi-pelagian- 
ism,  which  attributes  to  man  the  fiist  motion^  or  cause  of  con- 
version and  sanctification.  Still  it  will  always  be  true  to  say, 
that  Lutheranism  itself  originated  in  the  impious  doctrine  de- 
scribed above.  J  As  to  the  second  branch  of  the  Reformation, 
Calvinism,  where  it  has  not  sunk  into  Latitudinarianism  or  So- 
cinianism,§  it  is  still  distinguished  by  this  impious  system.  To 
give  a  few  passages  from  the  works  of  this  second  patriarch  of 
Protestants,  Calvin  says  :  "  God  requires  nothing  of  us  but 
faith  ;  he  asks  nothing  of  us,  but  that  we  believe. "||  *"  I  do  not 
hesitate  to  assert  that  the  will  of  God  makes  all  things  neces- 
sary."!! "  It  is  plainly  wrong  to  seek  for  any  other  cause  of 
damnation  than  the  hidden  counsels  of  God."**  "  Men,  by  the 
free  will  of  God,  without  any  dement  of  their  own,  are  predes- 
tinated to  eternal  death. "f-j-  It  is  useless  to  cite  the  disciples  of 
Calvin,  Beza,  Zanchius,  he.  as  they  all  stick  close  to  the  doc- 
trine of  their  master,  still  I  will  give  the  following  remarkable 
passage  from  the  works  of  the  renowned  Beza :  "  Faith  is  pe- 
culiar to  the  elect,  anri  consists  in  an  absolute  dependence  each 
one  has  on  the  certainty  of  his  election,  which  implies  an  assu- 
rance of  his  perseverance.     Hence  we  have  it  in  our  power  to 

*  See  Brirrley's  Protest.  Apol.  393.  See  also  Mosheim  and  Maclaine,  Ec- 
cles.  Hist.  vo!.  vi.  pp.  324,  32H.  ^ 

t  See  ilie  jass-.tp-e^  extracted  from  the  work  Dt  Servo  Arbitrio,  in  Letter* 
to  a  Prebendnry,  Letter  V, 

X  BoHsuet's  Variat.  1.  viii.  pp.  23,  54,  &c.  Mosheim  and  Maclaine,  vol,  Y.  pr 
446,  &c.  \  Ibid.  p.  458. 

(I  Calv.  in  Joan.  vi.       Rom.  i.  Galat.  ii. 

1  losLil.  l.iii.  c.iJ3.  *•  Ibid.  tt  Ibid. 


Letter  XIX.  H 

know  whether  v/e  be  predestinated  to  salvation,  not  by  fancy, 
but  by  conclusions  as  certain  as  if  we  had  ascended  into  heaven 
to  hear  it  from  the  mouth  of  God  himself."*"  And  is  there  a 
man  that,having  being  worked  up  by  sucli  dogmatizing,  or  by  his 
own  fancy,  to  tliis  full  assurance  of  indefeasible  predestination 
and  impeccability,  who,  under  any  violent  temptation  to  break 
tlie  laws  of  God  or  man,  can  be  expected  to  resist  it ! 

After  all  the  pains  which  have  been  taken  by  modern  divines 
of  the  church  of  England  to  clear  her  from  this  stain  of  Calvin- 
ism, nothing  is  more  certain  than  that  she  was,  at  first,  deeply 
infected  with  it.  The  42  Articles  of  Edward  VI.  and  the  39 
Articles  of  Elizabeth  are  evidently  grounded  in  that  doctrine,f 
which,  however,  is  more  expressly  inculcated  in  the  Lambeth 
Articles, J  approved  of  by  the  two  archbishops,  the  bishop  of 
London,  &;c.  in  1595,  "  whose  testimony,"  says  the  renowned 
Fuller,  "  i?  an  infallible  evidence,  what  was  the  general  and  re- 
ceived do<-r"n;p  of  the  church  of  England  in  that  age  about  the 
forenamed  controversies. "§  In  the  History  of  the  University  of 
Cambridge,  by  this  author,  a  strict  churchman,  we  have  evident 
proof  that  no  other  doctrine  but  that  of  Calvin  was  so  much  as 
tolerated  by  the  established  church,  at  the  time  I  have  been 
speaking  of.  "  One  W.  Barret,  fellow  of  Gonvile  and  Caius 
college,  preached  «J  Clerum  for  his  degree  of  bachelor  of  divi- 
nity, wherein  he  vented  Siir.l;  doctrines  for  which  he  was  sum- 
jno])^rl,  six  days  after,  before  the  consistory  of  doctors,  and 
there  e  j>joined  the  following  retraction  : — 1st,  /  said  that^  no 
man.  i.s  so  strongly  underprojjped  by  the  certainty  of  faith,  as  to 
be  assured  of  his  salvation :  but,  now,  I  protest,  before  God, 
that  they  which  are  justified  by  faith,  are  assured  of  their  salva- 
tion with  the  certainty  of  faith.  3dly,  I  said  that,  certainty  con- 
cerning  the  time  to  come  is  proud:  hut  now  I  protest  i\\dit  justi- 
fied  faith  can  never  be  rooted  out  of  the  minds  of  the  faithful. 
6thly,  These  words  escaped  me  in  my  sermon  :  /  believe  against 
Calvin,  Peter  Martyr,  Sfc.  that  sin  is  the  true,  proper,  and  first 
cause  of  reprobation.  But,  now,  being  better  instructed,  I  say 
that  the  reprobation  of  the  wicked  is  from  everlasting  ;  and  I  am 

♦  Exposit.  cited  by  Bossuet,  Variat.  ].  xiv.  pp.  6,  7. 

t  Particularly  the  1 1th,  12th,  ISlh,  aal  I7th  of  the  39  Articles.  By  the  tenor 
of  the  13th,  arnonof  the  30,  it  would  appear,  that  the  patience  of  Socrates,  the 
inte.g;rity  of  Aristides,  the  continence  of  Scipio,  and  the  patriotism  of  Cato  "  had 
the  nature  of  sin,"  hecause  they  were  ''works  done  before  the  grace  of  Christ." 

X  Fuller's  Church  Flistory,  p,  230. 

\  Fuller,  p.  232.— N.  B.  On  the  point  in  question,  Dr.  Hey,  vol.  iy.  p.  6, 
quotes  t()f  well-known  speech  of  the  ^reat  lord  Chathtim  in  parliament ;  "  W« 
^re  a  C?>lvini9tic  creed,  aud  an  Arminian  clergy." 


112  Letter  XIX. 

of  the  same  mind  roncerninc:  election,  as  the  church  of  England 
teachcth  in  the  Articles  of  faith.     Last  of  all,  I   uttered  these 
words  rasldy  ai:!:ainst  Calvin,  a  man  that  hath  very  well  deserved 
of  the  church  of  God  :  that  he  durst  presume  to  lift  himself  above 
the  IIii(h  God :  by  n  hich  words  I  have   done  great  injury  to 
that  le^iriied  and  right-godly  man.     I  have  also  uttered  many 
bitter  words  against  Peter  Martyr,  Theodore  Beza,  kc.  being" 
the  lights  and  ornaments  of  our  church,  calling  them  by  the 
odious  name  of  Calviuists,  kc."*    Another  proof  of  the  former 
intolerance  of  the  church  of  England,  with  respect  to  that  mo- 
derate system,  whicli  all  her  present   dignitaries  hold,  is  the 
order  drawn  up  by  the  archbishops  and  bishops  in  1566,  for 
government  to  act  upon,  namely,  that  "  All  incorrigible  free 
will  men,  fcc.  should  be  sent  into  some  castle  into  North  Wales, 
er  at  Wallngford,  there  to  live  of  their  own  labour,  and  no  one 
to  be  suffei-ed  to  resort  to  them,  but  their  keepers,  until  they  be 
foxnid  to  repent  their  errors. "f     A  still  stronger,   as  well  as 
more  authentic  evidence  of  the  former  Calvinism  of  the  EngHsh 
clmrch  is  furnished  by  the  history  and  acts  of  the  general  Cal- 
vinistic  Synod  of  Dort,  held  against  Vorstius,  the  successor  of 
Arminius,  who  had  endeavoured  to  modify  that  impious  system. 
Our  James  I.  who  had  the  principal  share  in  assembling  this 
Synod,  was  so  indignant  at  the  attempt,  that  in  a  letter  to  the 
States  of  Holland,  he  termed  Vorstius,  "  the  enemy  of  God,'* 
and  insisted  on  his  being  expelled,  declaring,  at  the  game  time, 
that  ''  it  was  his  own  duty,  in  quality  of  defender  of  the  faith, 
with  which  title,"  he  said,  *'  God  had  honoured  him.,  to  extirpate 
those  cursed  heresies,  and  to  drive   them  to  hell  !"f     To  be 
brief,   he  sent  Carlton  and  Davenport,  the  former  being  bishop 
of  Landaff,  the  latter  of  Salisbury,  with  two  other  dignitaries  of 
tlie  church  of  England,  and  Bancanqual,  on  the  part  of  the 
church  of  Scotland,  to  the  Synod,  where  they  appeared  amon^ 
tlie  foremost  in  condemning  the  Arminians,  and  in  defining  that 
"  God  ^ives  true  and  lively  faith  to  those  whom  he  resolves  to 
withdraw  from  the  common  damnation,  and  to  them  alone  )  and 
that  the  true  faitiiful,  by  atrocious  crimes,  do  not  forfeit  the  grace 
(4'  adoption  and  the  state  of  justification  /"§ 

It  might  have  been  expected  that  the  decrees  of  this  Synod 

•  Fuller's  Hist,  of  Univ.  of  Camb.  p.  150.— N.  R.  It  will  be  evident  to  the 
reader,  that  I  h;ive  p^rea'.ly  abridged  this  curious  recantation,  which  was  loO 
lonp^  to  be  quoted  at  lonxlh. 

t  .Strypc's  Annals  of  lleform.  vol.  i.p.  214. 

X  Hift.  Abreg:.  de  Clerard  Brandt,  torn.  i.  p.  4J7.  totn.ii.  p.  2, 

♦  liosjuet's  Variat,  vol.  ii.  pp.  291,  294,  304. 


Letter  XIX,  ll3 

VouW  have  greatly  strengthened  the  system  of  Calvinism ; 
whereas  it  is  from  the  termination  of  it,  wliich  corresponds  with 
the  concluding  part  of  the  reign  of  James  I.  that  we  are  to  date 
the  decline  of  it,  especially  ni  England.*  Still  greater  num- 
bers of  its  adherents,  under  the  name  of  Calvinists,  and  pro- 
fessing, not  without  reason,  to  maintain  the  original  tenets  of 
the  church  of  England,  subsist  in  this  country,  and  their  minis- 
ters arrogate  to  themselves  the  title  of  Evangelical  Preachers. 
In  like  manner  the  numerous  and  diversified  societies  of  Metho- 
dists, whether  Wesleyans  or  Whitfieldites,  Moravians  or  Revi- 
valists, New  Itinerants  or  Jumpers,!  are  all  partisans  of  the 
impious  and  immoral  system  of  Calvin.  The  founder  of  the 
first  mentioned  branch  of  these  sectaries  witnessed  the  follies  and 
crimes  which  flowed  from  it,  and  tried  to  reform  them  by  means 
of  a  laboured  but  groundless  distinction.  J 

After  all,  the  first  and  most  sacred  branch  of  holy  doctrine 
consists  in  those  articles  which  God  has  been  pleased  to  reveal 
concerning  his  own  divine  nature  and  operations,  namely,  the 
articles  of  the  unity  and  trinity  of  the  Deity,  and  of  the  incarna' 
tion,  death,  and  atonement  of  the  consubstantial  Son  of  God.  It 
is  admitted,  that  these  mysteries  have  been  abandoned  by  the 
Protestants  of  Geneva,  Holland,  and  Germany.  With  respect 
to  Scotland,  a  well  informed  writer  says :  "It  is  certain  that 
Scotland,  like  Geneva,  has  run  from  high  Calvinism  to  almost 
as  high  Arianism  or  Socinianism  :  the  exceptions,  especially  in 
the  cities,  are  few."  It  will  be  gathered  from  many  passages, 
which  I  have  cited  in  my  former  letters,  how  widely  extended 
throughout  the  established  church  is  that  "  tacit  reform,"  which 
a  learned  professor  of  its  theology  signifies  to  be  the  same  thing 
with  Socinianism.  A  judgment  may  also  be  formed  of  the  pre- 
valence of  this  system,  by  the  act  of  July  21,  1813^,  exempting 
the  professors  of  it  from  the  penalties  to  which  they  were  before 
subject.  And  yet  this  system,  as  I  have  before  observed,  is 
pronounced  by  the  church  of  England,  in  her  last  made  canons* 
"  damnable  and  cursed  heresy,  being  a  complication  of  many 
former  heresies  and  contrariant  to  the  articles  of  religion  now 
established  in  the  church  of  England. "§  I  ^>ay  nothing  of  the 
numerous  Protestant  victims,  who  have  been  burnt  at  the  stake 
in  this  country,  during  the  reigns  of  Edward  VI.  Elizabeth,  and 
James  I.  for  the  errors  in  question,  except  to  censure  the  incon- 

♦  xMoshicm  and  Maclaine,  vol.  v,  pp.  369,  389. 
t  See  Evans's  Sketch  of  all  Religions. 
^  Postscript,  p.  56. 
t  Constit.  and  Can.  A.  D.  1640. 
P 


114  Lttter  XIX. 

tistency  and  cruelty  of  the  proceeding  :  all  that  I  had  occasion 
to  show  was,  that  most  Protestants,  and,  among  the  rest,  those 
of  the  English  church,  instead  of  uniformly  maintaining  at  all 
times  the  same  holy  doctrine,  heretofore  abetted  an  impious  and 
immoral  system,  namely,  Calvinism,  which  they  have  since  been 
constrained  to  reject,  and  that  they  have  now  compromised  with 
impieties,  which  formerly  they  condemned  as  "  damnable  here- 
sies," and  punished  with  fire  and  faggot. 

But  it  is  time  to  speak  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Catholic  church. 
If  this  was  once  holy,  namely,  in  the  apostolic  age,  it  is  holy 
still ;  because  the  church  never  changes  her  doctrine,  nor  suf- 
N  fers  any  persons  in  her  communion  to  change  it,  or  to  question 
any  part  of  it.  Hence,  the  adorable  mysteries  of  the  trinity, 
the  incarnation,  &ic.  taught  by  Christ  and  his  apostles,  and  de- 
fined by  the  four  first  general  councils,  are  now  as  firmly  be- 
lieved by  every  real  Catholic,  throughout  her  whole  commu- 
nion, as  they  were  when  those  councils  were  held.  Concerning 
the  article  of  man's  justification,  so  far  from  holding  the  impious 
and  absurd  doctrines  imputed  to  her  by  her  unnatural  children, 
(who  sought  for  a  pretext  to  desert  her,)  she  rejects,  she  con- 
demns, she  anathematizes  them  !  It  is  then  false,  and  notorious- 
ly false,  that  Catholics  believe,  or  in  any  age  did  believe,  that 
they  could  justify  themselves  by  their  own  proper  merits ;  or 
that  they  can  do  the  least  good,  in  the  order  of  salvation,  with- 
out the  grace  of  God,  merited  for  them  by  Jesus  Clyist ;  or  that 
we  can  deserve  this  grace,  by  any  thing  we  have  the  power  of 
doing ;  or  that  leave  to  commit  sin,  or  even  the  pai'don  of  any 
sin,  which  has  been  committed,  can  be  purchased  of  any  person 
whomsoever ;  or  that  the  essence  of  religion  and  our  hopes  of 
salvation  consist  in  forms  and  ceremonies,  or  in  other  exterior 
things.  These,  and  such  other  calumnies,  or  rather  blasphemies, 
however  frequently  or  confidently  repeated  in  popular  sermons 
and  controversial  tracts,  there  is  reason  to  think  are  not  really 
believed  by  any  Protestant  of  learning.*  In  fact,  what  ground 
is  there  for  maintaining  them  ?  Have  they  been  defined  by  our 
councils  ?  No  :  they  have  been  condemned  by  them,  and  par- 
ticularly by  that  of  Trent.    Are  they  taught  in  our  catechisms, 

•  The  Norrisian  Professor,  Dr.  Hey,  says :  "  The  reformedlhave  departed 
•omuch  from  the  rifjour  of  their  doctrine  about  faith,  and  the  Romanists  from 
theirs  about  good  works,  that  there  serms  very  little  difference  between  them." 
Lect.  \o\.  iii.  p.  262.  True,  most  of  the  reformers,  after  buildinj*  their  religion 
on  faith  alone,  have  now  gone  into  the  opposite  heresy  of  Pelas;ia7iism,  or  at 
least  Semi-Fela^ianism :  but  Catholics  hold  exactly  the  same  tenets  r'^iianlinj 
good  works,  which  they  over  held,  and  which  were  always  very  different  from 
what  Dr.  Hey  diescribcs  them  to  have  been.     Vol.  iii.  p.  261. 


Letter  XIX,  116 

4uch  as  the  Catechismus  ad  Parochos^  the  General  Catechism  of 
Ireland,  the  Douay  Catechism ;  or  in  our  books  of  devotion, 
for  example,  those  written  by  an  a  Kempis,  a  Sales,  a  Granada, 
and  a  Challoner  ?  No  :  the  contrary  doctrine  is,  in  these,  and 
in  our  other  books,  uniformly  maintained.  In  a  word,  the  Ca- 
tholic church  teaches,  and  ever  has  taught,  her  children  to  trust 
for  mercy,  grace  and  salvation,  to  the  merits  of  Jesus  Christ ; 
nevertheless  she  asserts  that  we  have  free  will,  and  that  this 
being  prevented  by  divine  grace,  can  and  must  co-operate  to 
our  justification  by  faith,  sorrow  for  our  sins,  and  other  corres- 
ponding acts  of  virtue,  which  God  will  not  fail  to  bestow  upon 
us,  if  we  do  not  throw  obstacles  in  the  way  of  them.  Thus  is 
all  honour  and  merit  ascribed  to  the  Creator,  and  every  defect 
and  sin  attributed  to  the  creature.  The  Catholic  church  incul- 
cates moreover,  the  indispensable  necessity  of  humility  as  a  vir- 
tue, by  which,  says  St.  Bernard,  "from  athorough  knowledge  of 
ourselves  we  become  little  in  our  own  estimation,"  as  the 
ground-work  of  all  other  virtues.  I  mention  this  Catholic  les- 
son, in  particular,  because  however  strongly  it  is  enforced  by 
Christ  and  his  disciples,  it  seems  to  be  quite  overlooked  by 
Protestants,  insomuch  that  they  are  perpetually  boasting  in 
their  speeches  and  writings  of  the  opposite  vice,  pride.  In  like 
manner,  it  appears  from  the  above  montioned  catechisms  and 
spiritual  works,  what  pains  onr  church  bestows  in  regulating 
the  interior  no  less  than  the  c?iterior  of  her  children,  by  re- 
pressing every  thought  or  idea,  contrary  to  religion  or  morah- 
ty ;  of  which  matter,  I  perceive  little  or  no  notice  is  taken  in 
the  catechisms  and  tracts  of  Protestants.  Finally,  the  Catholic 
church  insists  upon  the  necessity  of  being  perfect  even  as  our 
heavenly  Father  is  perfect,  Mat.  v.  48,  by  such  an  entire  subju- 
gation of  our  passions  and  conformity  of  our  will  with  that  of 
God,  that  our  conversation  may  he  in  heaven,  while  we  are  yet 
living  here  on  earth.     Philip,  v.  20. 

I  am,  &c. 

J.  M.    ' 


POSTSCRIPT  TO  LETTER  XIX. 

[The  Life  of  the  late  Rev.  John  Wesley,  founder  of  the  Me- 
thodists, which  has  been  written  by  Dr.  Whitehead,  Dr.  Coke, 
and  others  of  his  disciples,  shows,  in  the  clearest  light,  the  er- 
rors and  contradictions  to  which  even  a  sincere  and  religious 


116  Letter  XIX. 

mind  is  subject,  that  is  destitute  of  the  clue  to  revealed  truth, 
the  liviniu:  autliority  of  the  Catholic  church,  as  also  the  impiety 
and  immorality  of  Calvinism.  At  first,  that  is  to  say,  in  thc- 
year  1729,  Wesley  was  a  modern  church  of  England  man,  dis- 
tinguished from  other  students  at  Oxford  by  nothing  but  a  more 
strict  and  methodical  form  of  life.  Of  course  his  doctrine  then- 
was  the  prevailing  doctrine  of  that  church  ;  this  he  preached  in 
England  and  carried  with  him  to  America,  whither  he  sailed  to 
convert  the  Indians.  Returning,  however,  to  England  in  1738, 
he  writes  as  follows  :  "  For  many  years  I  have  been  tossed 
about  by  various  winds  of  doctrine,"  the  particulars  of  which, 
and  of  the  different  schemes  of  salvation,  which  he  was  inclined 
to  trust  in,  he  details.  Falling,  at  last,  however,  into  the  hands 
of  Peter  Bohler  and  his  Moravian  brethren,  who  met  in  Fettei'- 
lane,  he  became  a  warm  proselyte  to  their  system,  declaring  at 
the  same  time,  with  respect  to  liis  past  religion,  that  hitherto  he 
had  been  a  Papist  without  knowing  it.  We  may  judge  of  his 
ardour  by  his  exclamation  when  Peter  Bohler  left  England : 
"  O  what  a  work  hath  God  begun  since  his  (Bohler's)  coming 
to  England ;  such  a  one  as  shall  never  come  to  an  end  till  hea- 
ven and  earth  shall  pass  away."  To  cement  his  union  with  this 
society,  and  to  instruct  himself  more  fully  in  its  mysteries,  he 
made  a  journey  to  Hernhuth  in  Moravia,  which  is  the  chief  seat 
of  the  United  Brethren.  It  was  whilst  he  was  a  Moravian, 
namely,  "  on  the  24th  of  May,  1738,  a  quarter  of  an  hour  be- 
fore  nine  in  the  evening,"  that  John  Wesley,  by  his  own  ac- 
count, was  "  saved  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death."  This  all 
important  event  happened  "  at  a  meeting  house,  in  Aldergate- 
street,  while  a  person  was  reading  Luther's  Preface  to  the 
Galatians."  Nevertheless,  though  lie  had  professed  such  deep 
obligations  to  the  Moravians,  he  soon  found  out  and  declared 
that  theirs  was  not  the  right  way  to  heaven.  In  fact  he  found 
them,  and  "  nine  parts  in  ten  of  the  Methodists"  who  adhered 
to  them,  "  swallowed  up  in  the  dead  sea  of  stillness,  opposing 
the  ordinances,  namely,  prayer,  reading  the  Scripture,  frequent- 
ing the  sacrament  and  public  worship,  selling  their  Bibles,  he. 
in  order  to  rely  more  fully  '  on  the  blood  of  the  Lamb.'  "  In 
short,  Wesley  abandoned  the  Moravian  connexion,  and  set  up 
that  which  is  [)roperly  his  own  religion,  as  it  is  (Retailed  by 
Nightingale,  in  his  Portrait  of  Methodism.  This  happened  in 
1740,  soon  after  which  he  broke  off  from  his  rival  Whitfield : 
in  fact  they  maintained  quite  opposite  doctrines  on  several  es- 
sential points  :  still  the  tenet  of  instantaneous  justification,  with- 
out repentance,  charity,  or  other  good  works,  and  the  actual 


Letter  XIX.  iy$ 

feeling  and  certainty  of  this  and  of  everlasting  happiness,  con- 
tinued to  be  the  essential  and  vital  principles  of  Wesley's  sys- 
tem, as  they  are  of  the  Calvinistic  sects  in  general ;  till  having 
witnessed  the  horrible  impieties  and  crimes  to  which  it  conduct- 
ed, he,  at  a  conference  or  synod  of  his  preachers,  in  1744,  de- 
clared that  he  and  they  had  "  leaned  too  much  to  Calvinism  and 
Antinomianism."     In  answer  to  the  question  "  What  is  Antino- 
mianism?"     Wesley,  in  the  same  conference,  ansvrers,  "  The 
doctrine  which  makes  void  the  law  through  faith.     Its  main 
pillars  are  that  Christ  abolished  the  moral  law  ;  that,  therefore. 
Christians  are  not  obliged  to  keep  it ;  that  ChristiLn  liberty,  is 
liberty  from  obeying  the  commands  of  God  ;  that  it  if.  bondage 
to  do  a  thing  because  it  is  commanded,  or  forbear  it  because  it 
is  forbidden ;  that  a  believer  is  not  obliged  to  us'i  the  ordi 
fiances  of  God,  or  to  do  good  \.  orks,  that  a  preachei*  ought  not 
to  exhort  to  good  works,"  he.     See  here  the  '^ssenticJ  morality 
of  the  religion  which  Wesley  had  hitherto  follo'./ed  and  pleach- 
ed, as  drawn  by  his  own  pen,  and  which  :,till  continues  to  be 
preached  by  the  other  sects  of  Methodists !    We  shall  hereafter 
see  in  what  manner  he  changed  it.     The  very  mention,  how- 
ever, of  a  change  in  this  ground-work  of  jf.lethodism,  inflamed 
all  the  Methodist  connexions  ;  accordingly,  the  Hon.  and  Rev. 
Mr.  Shirley,  chaplain  to  lady  Huntingdon,  in  a  circular  letter, 
written  at  her  desire,  declared   against  the  dreadful  heresy  of 
Wesley,  which,  as  he  expressed  himself,  "  injured  the  founda" 
4ion  of  Christianity.'^''     He,  therefore,  summoned  another  con- 
ference, which  severely  censured  Wesley.     On  the  other  hand, 
this  patriarch  was   strongly  supported,   and   particularly    by 
Fletcher  of  Madele}^,  an  able  writer,  whom  he  had  destined  to 
succeed  him,  as  the  head  of  his  connexion.   Instead  of  being  of- 
fended at  his  master's  change,  Fletcher  says,  "  I  admire  the  can- 
dour of  an  old  man  of  God,  who,  instead  of  obstinately  maintain- 
ing an  old  mistake,  comes  down  like  a  little  child,  and  acknow» 
ledges  it  before  his  preachers,  whom  it  is  his  interest  to  secure." 
The  same  Fletcher  published  seven  volumes  of  Checks  to  Antino- 
mianism, in  vindication  of  Wesley's  change  in  this  essential  point 
of  his  religion.     In  these  he  brings  the  most  convincing  proofs 
and  examples  of  the  impiety  and  immorality,  to  which  the  en- 
thusiasm of  Antinomian  Calvinism  had  conducted  the  Metho- 
dists.    He  mentions   a  highwayman,  lately   executed  in   his 
neighbourhood,  who  vindicated  his  crimes  upon  this  principle. 
He  mentions  other  more  odious  instances  of  wickedness,  which, 
to  his  knowledge,  had  flowed  from  it.     All  these,  he  says,  arf 
represented  by  their  preachers  to  be  "  damning  sins  in  Tur^ 


118  Letter  XIX, 

and  Pagans,  but  only  spots  in  God's  children."  He  adds, 
"  There  are  few  of  our  celebrated  pulpits,  where  more  has  not 
been  said  for  sin  than  against  it  /"  He  quotes  an  Hon.  M.  P. 
"  once  my  brother,"  he  says,  "  but  now  my  opponent,"  who,  in 
his  published  treatise,  maintains  that  "  murder  and  adultery  do 
not  hurt  the  pleasant  children,  (tl»e  elected,)  but  even  work  for 
their  good  :"  adding,  "  My  sins  may  displease  God,  my  person 
is  always  acceptable  to  him.  Though  I  should  outsin  Manas- 
ses  himself,  I  should  not  be  less  a  pleasant  child,  because  God 
always  views  me  in  Christ.  Hence,  in  the  midst  of  adulteries, 
murders  and  incests,  he  can  address  me  with.  Thou  art  all 
fair,  my  love,  my  undefiled ;  there  is  not  a  spot  in  thee. 
It  is  a  most  pernicious  error  of  the  schoolmen  to  distinguish 
sins  according  to  the  fact,  not  according  to  the  person.  Though 
I  highly  blame  those  who  say,  let  us  sin  that  grace  may  abound; 
yet  adultery,  incest  and  murder,  shall,  upon  the  whole,  make 
me  holier  on  earth  and  merrier  in  heaven  !"  It  only  remains 
to  show  in  what  manner  Wesley  purified  his  religious  system, 
as  he  thought,  from  the  defilement  of  Antinomianism.  To  be 
brief,  he  invented  a  two-fold  mode  of  justification,  one  without 
repentance,  the  love  of  God,  or  other  works ;  the  other,  to 
which  these  works  were  essential :  the  former  was  for  those  who 
die  soon  after  their  pretended  experience  of  saving  faith,  the 
latter  for  those  who  have  time  and  opportunity  of  performing 
them.  Thus,  to  say  no  more  of  the  system,  according  to  it  a 
Nero  and  a  Robespierre  might  have  been  established  in  the 
grace  of  God,  and  in  a  right  to  the  realms  of  infinite  purity, 
without  one  act  of  sorrow  for  their  enormities,  or  so  much  as  an 
act  of  their  behef  in  God  !] 


[  119  ] 

LETTER  XX. 

To  JAMES  BROWN,  Esq. 

ON  THE  MEATUS  OF  SANCTITY. 

Dear  Sir, 

The  efficient  cause  of  justification,  or  sanctity,  according  to 
the  Council  of  Trent,*  is  the  mercy  of  God  through  the  merits 
of  Jesus  Christ ;  still,  in  the  usual  economy  of  his  grace,  he 
makes  use  of  certain  instruments  or  means,  both  for  conferring 
and  increasing  it.  The  principal  and  most  efficacious  of  these 
are  THE  SACRAMENTS.  Fortunately,  the  established 
church  agrees  in  the  main  sense  with  the  Catholic  and  other 
Christian  churches,  when  she  defines  a  sacrament  to  be  "  an 
outward  and  visible  sign  of  an  inward  and  spiritual  grace, 
given  unto  us,  and  ordained  by  Christ  himself,  as  a  means 
whereby  we  receive  the  same,  and  a  pledge  to  assure  us  there- 
of."f  But,  though  she  agrees  with  other  Protestant  commu- 
nions in  reducing  the  number  of  these  to  two,  baptism  and  tht 
Lord's  Supper,  she  differs  with  all  others,  namely,  the  Catholic, 
the  Greek,  the  Russian,  the  Armenian,  the  Nestorian,  the  Euty- 
chian,  the  Coptic,  the  Ethiopian,  &z;c.  all  of  which  firmly  main- 
tain, and  ever  have  maintained,  as  well  since  as  before  their 
respective  defections  from  us,  the  whole  collection  of  the  seven 
sacraments. \  This  fact  alone  refutes  the  airy  speculations  of 
Protestants  concerning  the  origin  of  the  five  sacraments,  which 
they  reject,  and  thus  demonstrates  that  they  are  deprived  of  as 
many  divinely  instituted  instruments  or  means  of  sanctity.  As 
these  seven  channels  of  grace,  though  all  supplied  from  the 
same  fountain  of  Christ's  merits,  supply,  each  of  them,  a  sepa- 
rate grace,  adapted  to  the  different  wants  of  the  faithful,  and  as 
each  of  them  furnishes  matter  of  observation  for  the  present 
discussion,  so  I  shall  take  a  cursory  view  of  them.  , 

The  first  sacrament,  in  point  of  order  and  necessity,  is  bap- 

•  Sess.  vi.  cap.  7. 

t  Catechism  in  Com.  Prayer. — N.  B.  The  last  clause  in  this  definition  is  far 
too  strong,  as  it  seems  to  imply,  that  every  person  who  is  partaker  of  the  out- 
ward  part  of  a  sacrament,  necessarily  receives  the  §Tace  oi  it,  whatever  maybe 
his  dispositions ;  an  impiety  which  the  bishop  of  Lincoln  calumniously  attributes 
t6  the  Catholics.     Elements  of  Theol.  vol.  ii.  p.  436. 

X  This  important  fact  is  incontrovertibly  proved,  in  the  celebrated  work  Lm 
Ptrpetuiti  de  la  Foi,  from  original  documents,  procured  by  Louis  XIV.  aad 
preserved  in  the  king's  library  at  Paris. 


120  Letter  XX, 

tism.  In  fact,  no  authority  can  be  more  express  than  that  of 
the  Scripture,  as  to  this  necessity.  Except  a  man  be  horn  of 
water  and  of  the  spirit,  says  Christ,  he  cannot  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  God.  John  iii.  5.  Repent,  cries  St.  Peter,  and  he 
baptized  every  one  of  you,  in  the  name  of  Jesus,  for  the  remission 
of  sins.  Acts  ii.  38.  Arise,  answered  Ananias  to  St.  Paul,  and 
be  baptized,  and  wash  away  thy  sins.  Acts  xxii.  16.  This  ne- 
cessity was  heretofore  acknowledged  by  the  church  of  England, 
at  least,  as  appears  from  her  Articles,  and  still  more  clearly 
from  her  liturgy,*  and  the  works  of  her  eminent  divines. f 
Hence,  as  baptism  is  valid,  by  whomsoever  it  is  conferred,  the 
English  church  may  be  said  to  have  been  upon  an  equal  foot- 
ing with  the  Catholic  church,  as  much  as  concerns  this  instru- 
ment or  means  of  holiness  :  but  the  case  is  diiierent  now,  since 
that  tacit  reformation,  which  is  acknowledged  to  have  taken 
place  in  her.  This  has  nearly  swept  out  of  her  both  the  belief 
of  original  sin,  and  of  its  necessary  remedy,  baptism.  "  That 
we  are  born  guilty,"  the  great  authority,  Dr.Balguy,  says,  "  is 
either  unintelligible  or  impossible."  Accordingly,  he  teaches, 
that  ''  the  rite  of  baptism  is  no  more  than  a  representation  of 
our  entrance  into  the  church  of  Christ."  Elsewhere,  he  says, 
"  The  sign  (of  a  sacrament)  is  declaratory,  not  effLcient.y  Dr. 
Hey  says,  the  negligence  of  the  parent,  with  respect  to  pro* 
curing  baptism,  "  may  affect  the  child  :  to  say  it  will  aifect 
him,  is  to  run  into  the  error  I  am  condemning. "<5.  Even  the 
bishop  of  Lincoln  calls  it  "  an  unauthorized  principle  of  Pa- 
pists, that  no  person  whatsoever  can  be  saved  who  has  not  been 
baptized."||  Where  the  doctrine  of  baptism  is  so  lax,  we  may 
be  sure  the  practice  of  it  will  not  be  more  strict ;  accordingly, 
we  have  abundant  proofs  that,  from  the  frequent  and  long  de- 
lays, respecting  the  administration  of  this  sacrament,  which  oc- 
cur in  the  establishment,  very  many  children  die  without  receiv- 
ing it ;  and  that,  from  the  negligence  of  ministers,  as  to  the 
right  matter  and  form  of  words,  many  more  children  receive  it 
invalidly.  Look,  on  the  other  hand,  at  the  Catholic  church  : 
you  will  find  the  same  importance  still  attached  to  this  sacred 
rite,  on  the  part  of  the  people  and  the  clergy,  which  is  observ- 

•  Common  Prayer.  ^ 

t  See  B.   rearson  on  tbo  Creed.  Arl.  x.     Hooker,  Eccl.  Polit.  B.  r.  p.  60. 

X  Charg:r  vii.  pp.  20H,3Of>.  \  Lectures  in  Divinity,  vol.  iii.j).  If52. 

fj  Vol.  ii.  p.  470,  The  Ipftrned  prelate  ran  hardly  be  su|iposed  ignorant  that 
many  of  our  martyrs,  recorded  iTi  our  Martyrolo^y  and  our  Breviary,  are  ex- 
pressly declared  not  to  have  horn  (irfuaf/i/  l.a])li7.ed  ;  or  that  our  divines  unani- 
mously teacb.  thr^t  not  otiK-  Die  l-aplism  olhloodhy  martyrdom,  but  also  a  sin- 
oere  deflire  of  bning  bHptivi»d,  .snnice.*,  where  th«»  means  of  baptitm  are  wanting. 


Letter  XX,  12i 

able  in  the  Acts  of  the  apostles  and  in  the  writings  of  the  lioly 
fathers  ;  the  former  being  ever  impatient  to  have  their  chiklrea 
baptized,  the  latter  equally  solicitous  to  administer  it  in  due 
time,  and  with  the  most  scrupulous  exactness.  Thus,  as  mat- 
ters stand  now,  the  two  churches  are  not  upon  a  level  with  re- 
spect to  this  first  and  common  means  of  sanctification  :  the 
members  of  one  have  a  much  greater  moral  certainty  of  the  re- 
mission of  that  sin  in  which  we  were  all  born,  and  of  their  hav- 
ing been  heretofore  actually  received  into  the  church  of  Christ, 
than  the  members  of  the  others  have.  It  would  be  too  tedious 
a  task  to  treat  of  the  tenets  of  other  Protestants  on  this  and  the 
corresponding  matters.  Let  it  suffice  to  say,  that  the  famous 
Synod  of  Dort,  representing  all  the  Calvinistic  states  of  Eu- 
rope, formerly  decided  that  the  children  of  the  elect  are  include 
ed  in  the  covenant  made  with  their  parents,  and  thus  are  ex- 
empt from  the  necessity  of  baptism,  as  likewise  of  faith  and 
morality ;  being  thus  ensured,  themselves  and  all  their  posteri- 
ty, till  the  end  of  time,  of  their  justification  and  salvation  !* 

Concerning  the  second  channel  of  grace  or  means  of  sanctity, 
confirmation,  there  is  no  question.  The  church  of  England, 
which,  among  the  difierent  Protestant  societies,  alone,  I  be- 
lieve, lays  claim  to  any  part  of  this  rite,  under  the  title  of  the 
ceremony  of  laying  on  of  hands,  expressly  teaches,  at  the  same 
time,  that  it  is  no  sacrament,  as  not  being  ordained  by  God,  or 
an  effectual  sign  of  grace.-\  But  the  Catholic  church,  instruct- 
ed by  the  solicitude  of  the  apostles  to  strengthen  the  faith  of 
those  her  children  who  had  received  it  in  baptism, {  and  by  the 
lessons  of  Christ  himself,  concerning  the  importance  of  receiv- 
ing that  holy  spirit,  which  is  communicated  in  this  sacrament,^ 
religiously  retains  and  faithfully  administers  it  to  them,  for 
the  self-sanie  purpose,  through  all  ages.  In  a  word,  those  who 
are  true  Christians,  by  virtue  of  baptism,  are  not  made  perfect 
Christians,  ex^.ept  by  virtue  of  the  sacrament  of  confirmation, 
which  none  of  the  Protestant  societies  so  much  as  lays  a  claim 
to. 

Of  the  third  s^crament,  indeed,  the  Lord's  Supper,  as  they 
call  it,  the  Protestant  societies,  and  particularly  the  church  of 
England,  in  her  Prwyer  Book,  say  great  things  :  nevertheless, 
what  is  it,  after  all,  upon  her  own  showing  ?  Mere  bread  and 
wine,  received  in  memory  of  Christ's  passion  and  death,  in  or- 
der to  excite  the  receiver's  faith  in  him :  that  is  to  say,  it  is  a 


•  Bossuet,  Variat.  Book  xiv.  p.  46, 
t  Art.  XXV.  ±  Actsviii.  14.— xix.  2.  ♦  John  xvi. 

Q 


122  Letter  XX. 

bare  type  or  memorial  of  Christ.  Aiiy  thing  may  be  instituted 
to  be  the  type  or  memorial  of  another  thing;  but  certainly  the 
Jews,  ill  their  pasclial  lamb,  had  a  more  lively  figure  of  the 
death  of  Christ,  and  so  have  Christians  in  each  of  the  four 
evangelists,  than  eating  bread  and  drinking  wine  can  be. 
Hence,  I  infer  that  the  communion  of  Protestants,  according  to 
their  belief  and  practice  in  this  country,  cannot  be  more  than  a 
feeble  excitement  to  their  devotion,  and  an  inefficient  help  to 
their  sunctification.  But  if  Christ  is  to  be  believed  upon  his 
own  solemn  declaration,  where  he  says.  Take  ye  and  eat;  this 
is  my  body : — drink  ye  all  of  this  ;  for  this  is  my  blood,  Mat.  xxvi. 
26. — My  flesh  is  meat  indeed,  and  my  blood  is  drink  indeed^ 
John  vi.  5G.  Then  the  holy  communion  of  Catholics  is,  be- 
yond all  expression  and  all  conception,  not  only  the  most  pow- 
erful stimulative  to  our  faith,  our  hope,  our  love,  and  our  con- 
trition ;  but  also  the  most  efficacious  means  of  obtaining  these 
and  all  other  graces  from  the  divine  bounty.  Those  Catholics 
who  frequent  this  sacrament  with  the  suitable  dispositions,  are 
the  best  judges  of  the  truth  of  what  I  here  say :  nevertheless, 
many  Protestants  have  been  converted  to  the  Catholic  church, 
from  the  ardent  desire  they  felt  of  receiving  their  Saviour 
Christ  himself  into  their  bosoms,  instead  of  a  bare  memorial  of 
him,  and  from  a  just  conviction  of  the  spiritual  benefits  they 
would  derive  from  this  intimate  union  with  him. 

The  four  remaining  instruments  of  grace,  penance,  extreme 
unction,  order,  and  matrimony,  Protestants,  in  general,  give  up 
to  us,  no  less  than  confirmation.  The  bishop  of  Lincoln,*  Dr. 
Hey,f  and  other  controvertists,  pretend  that  it  was  Peter  Lom- 
bard, in  the  12th  century,  who  made  sacraments  of  tliem.  True 
it  is,  that  this  industrious  theologian  collected  together  the  dif- 
ferent passages  of  the  fathers,  and  arranged  them,  with  proper 
definitions  of  each  subject,  in  their  present  scholastic  order,  not 
only  respecting  the  sacraments,  but  likewise  the  ether  branches 
of  divinity,  on  which  account  he  is  called  the  master  of  the  sen- 
fences ;  but  this  writer  could  as  soon  have  introduced  Mahomet- 
anism  into  the  church  as  the  belief  of  any  one  sacrament  which 
it  had  not  before  received  as  such.  Besides,  supposing  him  to 
have  deceived  the  Latin  church  into  this  belief,  I  ask  by  what 
means  were  the  schismatical  Greek  churches  fascinated  into  it.'* 
In  short,  though  these  holy  rites  had  not  been  endued  by  Christ 
with  a  sacramental  grace,  yet,  practised  as  they  are  in  the  Ca- 


•  Elcm.  Tol.  ii.  p.  414.  t  Lect.  vol.  iv.  p.  199. 


Letter  XX.  123 

tholic  church,   they  would   still  be  great  helps  to   piety   and 
Christian  morality. 

What  I  have  just  asserted  concerning  these  five  sacrajnents, 
in  general,  is  particularly  true,  with  respect  to  the  svicranient  of 
penance.  For  what  does  this  consist  of?  and  what  is  the  pre- 
paration for  it,  as  set  forth  by  all  our  councils,  catechisms,  and 
prayer  books  ?  There  must  first  be  fervent  prayer  to  God  for 
his  light  and  strength;  next  an  impartial  examinati.').n  of  the 
conscience,  to  acquire  that  most  important  of  all  sciences,  the 
knowledge  of  ourselves ;  then  true  sorrow  for  our  sins,  with  a 
firm  purpose  of  amendment,  which  is  the  most  essential  part  of 
the  sacrament.  After  this  there  must  be  a  sincere  exposure  of 
the  state  of  the  interior  to  a  confidential,  and  at  tiie  same  time, 
a  learned,  experienced,  and  disinterested  director.  If  he  coul^ 
afford  no  other  benefit  to  his  penitents,  yet  how  inestimable  are 
those  of  his  making  known  to  them  many  defects  and  many  du- 
ties, which  their  self-love  had  probably  overlooked,  of  his 
prescribing  to  them  the  proper  remedies  for  their  spiritual  mala- 
dies, and  of  his  requiring  them  to  make  restitution  for  every 
injury  done  to  each  injured  neighbour  !  But  we  aie  well  as- 
sured that  these  are  far  from  being  the  only  benefits  which  the 
minister  of  this  sacrament  can  confer  upon  the  subject  of  it : 
for  it  was  not  an  empty  comphment  which  Christ  paid  to  his 
apostles,  when.  Breathing  on  them,  he  said  to  them :  Receive  ye 
the  Holy  Ghost,  ivhose  sins  you  shall  remit,  they  are  remiitedy 
and  whose  sins  you  shall  retain,  they  are  retained.  John  xx.  22, 
23.  O  sweet  balm  of  the  wounded  spirit !  O  sovereign  restora- 
tive of  the  soul's  life  and  vigour !  best  known  to  those  who 
faithfully  use  thee,  and  not  unattested  by  those  who  neglect  and 
blaspheme  thee  !^ 

It  might  appear  strange,  if  we  were  not  accustomed  to  similar 
inconsistencies,  that  those  who  profess  to  make  Scripture,  in  its 
plain  obvious  sense,  the  sole  rule  of  their  faith  and  practice, 
should  Aeny  extreme  unction  to  be  a  sacrament,  the  external 
sign  of  which,  anointing  the  sick,  and  the  spiritual  efl'ect  of 
which,  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  are  so  expressly  declared  by  St. 
James,  in  his  Epistle  v.  14.  Martin  Luther,  indeed,  who  had 
taken  offence  at  this  Epistle,  for  its  insisting  so  strongly  ou 
good  works,f  rejected  the  autliority  of  this  Epistle,  alleging 
that  it  was  **  not  lawful  for  an   apostle  to  institute  a  sacra- 

*  See  the  form  of  onlaining'  priests  In  bishop  Sparrow's  Collect,  p.  158,  also 
the  form  of  absolution,  in  the  visitation  of  the  sick,  in  the  CoiTimon  Prayer. 

t  Luther,  in  the  orig'inal  Jena  edition  of  his  worlis,  palls  this  Epistle  "a  dry 
aD4  chaffy  EpistJe,  unworthy  ao  aposUe  " 


124  Letter  XX. 

ment."*  But,  I  trust,  that  you,  dear  sir,  and  your  conscien- 
tious society,  will  agree  with  me,  that  it  is  more  incredible  that  an 
apostle  of  Christ  should  be  ignorant  of  what  he  was  authorized 
by  him  to  say  and  do,  than  that  a  profligate  German  friar 
€hould  be  guilty  of  blasphemy.  Indeed,  the  church  of  England, 
in  the  first  form  of  her  Common  Prayer  in  Edward's  reign,  en- 
joined the  unction  of  the  sick,  as  well  as  the  prayer  for  them.f 
It  was  evidently  well  worthy  the  mercy  and  bounty  of  our  di- 
vine Saviour,  to  institute  a  special  sacrament  for  purifying  and 
strengthening  us  at  the  time  of  our  greatest  need  and  terror. 
Owing  to  the  institution  of  this,  and  the  two  other  sacraments  |f 
penance  and  the  real  body  and  blood  of  our  Lord,  it  is  a  fact,'*^ 
tliat  few,  very  few  Catholics  die  without  the  assistance  of  their 
clergy ;  which  assistance  the  latter  are  bound  to  aflbrd,  at  the 
expense  of  ease,  fortune,  and  life  itself,  to  the  most  indigent  and 
fibject  of  their  flock,  who  are  in  danger  of  death,  no  less  than 
40  the  rich  and  the  great :  while,  on  the  other  hand,  very  few 
Protestants,  in  that  extremity,  partake  at  all  of  the  cold  rites  of 
tlieir  religion ;  though  one  of  them  is  declared,  in  the  Cate- 
chism, to  be  "  necessary  for  salvation !" 

It  is  equally  strange  that  a  clergy,  with  such  high  claims  and 
important  advantages  as  those  of  the  establishment,  should  deny 
that  the  orders  of  bishops,  priests,  and  deacons,  are  sacrament- 
al, or  that  the  Episcopal  form  of  church  government,  and  of 
ordaining  the  clergy,  is  in  preference  to  any  other  required  by 
Scripture.  In  fact,  this  is  telling  the  legislature  and  the  nation 
that,  if  they  prefer  the  less  expensive  ministry  of  the  Presbyte- 
rians or  Methodists,  there  is  nothing  divine  or  essential  in  the 
ministry  itself,  which  will  be  injured  by  the  change ;  and  that 
clergymen  may  be  as  validly  ordained  by  the  town-crier  with 
his  bell,  as  by  the  metropolitan's  imposition  of  hands  !  Never- 
theless, this  is  the  doctrine,  not  only  of  Hoadley's  Socinian 
school,  as  I  have  elsewhere  demonstrated, J  but  also  of  those  mo- 
dern divines  and  dignitaries,  who  are  the  standard  of  ortho- 
doxy.(^^  Thus  are  the  clergy  of  the  English  church,  as  well  as 
all  other  Protestant  ministers,  by  their  own  confession,  desti- 
tute of  all  sacramental  grace  for  performing  their  functions  ho- 
Jily  and  beneficially. ||  But  we  know,  conformably  to  the  doc- 
trine of  St.  Paul,  in  both  his  Epistles  to  Timothy,  t  Tim,  iv. 

•  Luther's  works,  Jena  edition. 

t  See  Collier's  Frrles.  Hist.  vol.  ii.  p.  257. 

t  Dr.  Halxuy,  Dr.  Hey,  kc. 

i  The  bishop  of  Linnohrs  Klom.  of  Theol.  vol.  ii.  pp.  376,  39(J. 

H  See  Letters  to  a  Prebendary,  Letter  VUI. 


Letter  XX.  *  125 

vl.  2  Tim.  i.  6.  with  the  constant  doctrine  of  the  CathoUt 
church,  and  of  all  other  ancient  churches,  that  this  grace  is  con- 
ferred on  those  who  are  truly  ordained  and  in  fit  dispositions  to 
receive  it.  We  know,  moreover,  that  the  persuasion  which 
the  faithful  entertain  of  the  divine  character  and  grace  of  their 
clergy,  gives  a  great  additional  weight  to  their  lessons  and 
ministry. — In  like  manner,  with  respect  to  matrimony,  which 
the  same  apostle  expressly  calls  a  sacrament,  Ephes.  v.  32,  in* 
dependently  of  its  peculiar  grace,  the  very  idea  of  its  sanctity, 
is  a  preparation  for  entering  into  that  state  with  religious  disr 
positions. 

Next  to  the  sacraments  of  the  Catholic  church,  as  helps  to 
holiness  and  salvation,  I  must  mention  her  public  service.  We 
continually  hear  the  advocates  of  the  establishment  crying  up 
the  beauty  and  perfection  of  their  liturgy  ;*  but,  they  have  nol 
the  candour  to  inform  the  public  that  it  is  all,  in  a  manner,  bor- 
rowed from  the  Catholic  Missal  and  Ritual.  Of  this  any  one 
may  satisfy  himself  who  will  compare  the  prayers,  lessons  and 
Gospels,  in  these  Catholic  books,  with  those  in  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer.  But,  though  our  service  has  been  thus  pur- 
loined, it  has,  by  no  means  been  preserved  entire  :  on  the  con«- 
trary,  we  find  it,  in  the  latter,  eviscerated  of  its  noblest  parts ; 
particularly  with  respect  to  the  principal  and  essential  worship 
of  all  the  ancient  churches,  the  holy  mass,  which,  from  a  true 
propitiatory  sacrifice,  as  it  stands  in  all  their  Missals,  is  cut 
down  to  a  mere  verbal  worship  in  The  Order  for  Morning 
Prayer.  Hence,  our  James  I.  pronounced  of  the  latter,  that  it 
is  an  ill-said  mass.  The  servants  of  God  had,  by  his  appoint- 
ment, SACRIFICE  both  under  the  law  of  nature  and  the  writ- 
ten law;  it  would  then  be  extraordinary,  if  under  the  law  of 
grace  they  were  left  destitute  of  this  the  most  sublime  and  ex- 
cellent act  of  religion,  which  man  can  offer  to  his  Creator.  But 
we  are  not  left  destitute  of  it :  on  the  contrary,  that  prophecy 
of  Malachy  is  fulfilled,  Mai.  i.  \\.  In  every  place  fromthe  rising 
to  the  setting  of  the  sun,  sacrifice  is  offered  and  a  pure  oblation  ; 
even  Christ  himself,  who  is  really  present  and  mystically  offer- 
ed on  our  altars  in  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass. 

I  pass  over  the  solemnit}^,  the  order  and  the  magnificence  off 
our  public  worhip  and  ritual  in  Catholic  countries,  which  most 
candid  Protestants,  who  have  witnessed  them,  allow  to  be  ex- 
ceedingly impressive,  and  great  helps  to  devotion,  and  which, 

•  Dr.  Rennel  calls  the  church  liturgy  "  the  most  perfect  of  human  composi- 
Hons  and  tlie  sacred  legacy  of  the  first  reformers."    Disc.  p.  237. 


t86  Letter  XXI. 

rertainly,  in  most  particulars,  find  their  parallel  in  the  worship 
ind  ceremonies   of  the  Old  Law,   ordained  by  God  himself. 
Nevertheless,  it  is  a  gross  calumny  to  assert  that  the  Catholic 
•hurch  does,  or  ever  did  make  the  essence  of  religion  to  con- 
ist  in  these  externals ;  and  we  challenge  them  to  our  councils 
md  doctrinal  books  in  refutation  of  the  calumny.    In  like  man- 
ler,  I  pass  over  the  many  private  exercises  of  piety  which  are 
generally  practised  in  regular  Catholic  families  and  by  indivi- 
duals, such  as  daily  meditation  and  spiritual  reading,  evening 
prayers  and  examination  of  the  conscience,  &:c.     These,  it  will 
not  be  denied,  must  be  helps  to  obtain  sanctity  for  those  who 
are  desirous  of  it. — But  I  have  said  more  than  enough  to  con- 
vince your  friends  in  which  of  the  rival  communions  the  means 
of  sanctity  are  chiefly  to  be  found. 

I  am,  Dear  Sir,  &:c. 
J.  M. 


LETTER  XXI. 
To  JAMES  BROWN,  Esq. 
OK  THE  FRUITS  OF  SANCTITY,  » 

Dear  Sir, 
The  fruits  of  sanctity  are  the  virtues  practised  by  those  who 
are  possessed  of  it.  Hence  the  present  question  is,  whether 
these  are  to  be  found,  for  the  most  part,  among  the  members  of 
the  ancient  Catholic  church,  or  among  the  diflerent  innovators, 
who  undertook  to  reform  it  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries?  In  considering  the  subject,  the  first  thing  which 
strikes  me  is,  that  all  the  saints,  and  even  those  who  are  record- 
ed as  such  in  the  calendar  of  the  church  of  England,  and  in 
whose  names  their  churches  are  dedicated,  lived  and  died  strict 
members  of  the  Catholic  church,  and  zealously  attached  to  her 
doctrhie  and  discipline.*  For  an  example,  in  this  calendar,  we 
meet  with  a  Pope  Gregory,  March  12,  the  zealou*  assertor  of 

•  I  must  exrcpl  king  Charles  I.  who  is  rubricated  as  a  martyr  on  Jan.  30: 
nevertheless,  it  is  confessed  that  he  whs  far  from  possessing  either  the  purity  of 
a  saint  or  the  constancy  of  a  martyr  :  for  he  actually  gave  up  Episcopacy,  and 
other  essentials  of  the  established  religion,  by  his  last  treaty  in  the  Isle  of  Wight. 


Letter  XXI.  1^ 

the  papal  supremacy,*  and  other  Catholic  doctrines;  a  St 
Benedict,  March  21,  the  patriarch  of  the  western  monks  and 
nuns;  a  St.  Dunstan,  May  19,  the  vindicator  of  clerical  celi- 
bacy ;  a  St.  Augustine  of  Canterbury,  May  26,  the  introducer 
of  the  whole  system  of  Catholicity  into  England,  and  a  venera- 
ble Bede,  May  27,  the  witness  of  this  important  fact.     It  is 
sufficient  to  mention  the  names  of  other  Catholic  saints,  for 
example,  David,  Chad,  Edward,   Richard,  Elphege,  Martin, 
Swithun,  Giles,  Lambert,  Leonard,  Hugh,  Etheldreda,  Remi- 
gius,  and  Edmund,  all  of  which  are  inserted  in  the  calendar, 
and  give  names  to  the  churches  of  the  establishment.     Besides 
these,  there  are  very  many  of  our  other  saints,  whom  all  learned 
and  candid  Protestants  unequivocally  admit  to  have  been  such, 
for  the  extraordinary  purity  and  sanctity  of  their  lives.     Even 
Luther  acknowledges  St.  Anthony,  St.  Bernard,  St.  Dominic, 
St.  Francis,   St.  Bonaventure,  &;c.  to  have  been  saints,  though 
avowed  Catholics,  and  defenders  of  the  Catholic  church  against 
the  heretics  and  schismatics  of  their  times.     But,  independently 
of  this  and  of  every  other  testimony,  it  is  certain  that  the  su- 
pernatural virtues  and  heroical  sanctity  of  a  countless  number 
of  holy  personages  of  different  countries,  ranks,  professions, 
and  sexes,  have  illustrated  the  Catholic  church  in  every  age, 
frith   an  effulgence  which  cannot  be    disputed  or  withstood. 
Your  friends,   I  dare  say,  are  not  much  acquainted  with  the 
histories  of  these  brightest  ornaments  of  Christianity :  let  me 
then  invite  them  to  peruse  them  ;  not  in  the  legends  of  obsolete 
writers,  but  in  a  work  which,  for  its  various  learning  and  lu- 
minous criticism,  was  commended  even  by  the  Infidel  Gibbon. 
I  mean  The  Saints^  Lives,  in  twelve  octavo  volumes,  written  by 
the  late  Rev.  Alban  Butler,  president  of  St.  Omer's  collcue. 
Protestants  are  accustomed  to  paint  in  the  most  frightful  colours 
the  alleged  depravity  of  the  church,  when  Luther  erected  his 
standard,  in  order  to  justify  him  and  his  followers'  defection 
from  it :  but  to  form  a  right  judgment  in  the  case,  let  them  read 
the  works  of  the  contemporary  writers,  an  a  Kempis,  a  Gerson,  ~ 
an  Antoninus,  4'C.  or  let  them  peruse  the  lives  of  Vincent  Ferrer, 
St.  Laurence  Justinian,  St.  Fi  aiicis  Paula,  St.  Philip  Neri,  St. 
Cajetan,   St.  Teresa,  St.  Francis  Xavier,  and  of  those  other 
saints,  who  illuminated  the  church  about  the  period  in  question ; 

•  Many  Protestant  writers  pretended  that  St.  Gregrory  disclaimed  the  su- 
premacy, because  he  asserted  against  John  of  C  P.  that  neither  he  nor  any 
other  prelate  ought  to  assume  the  title  of  Universal  Bishop  ;  but  that  he  clairi- 
ed  and  exercised  the  supremacy,  his  own  works  and  the  hittory  of  Bede  iacou- 
trovertibly  demonstrate. 


128  Letter  XXI. 

or  let  them,  from  the  very  accounts  of  Protestant  historians, 
compare,  as  to  religion  and  morality,  archbishop  Cranmer  with 
his  rival  bishop  Fisher;  protector  Seymour  with  chancellor 
More,  Ann  Bullen  with  Catliarine  of  Arragon,  Martin  Luther 
and  Calvin  with  Francis  Xavier  and  cardinal  Pole,  Beza  with 
St.  Francis  of  Sales,  queen  Elizabeth  with  Mary  queen  of 
Scots ;  these  contrasted  characters  having  more  or  less  relation 
with  each  otlier.  From  such  a  comparison,  I  have  no  sort  of 
doubt  what  the  decision  of  your  friends  will  be  concerning 
them,  in  point  of  their  respective  holiness. 

I  have  heretofore  been  called  upon  to  consider  the  virtues 
and  merits  of  the  most  distinguished  reformers  ;*  and  certainly 
we  have  a  right  to  expect  from  persons  of  this  description  finish- 
ed models  of  virtue  and  piety.  But  instead  of  this  being  the 
case,  I  have  shown  that  patriarch  Luther  was  the  sport  of  his 
unbridled  passions, f  pride,  resentment,  and  lust ;  that  he  was 
turbulent,  abusive,  and  sacrilegious,  in  the  highest  degree ;  that 
he  was  the  trumpeter  of  sedition,  civil  war,  rebellion,  and  deso- 
lation ;  and  finally,  that  by  his  own  account,  he  was  the  scholar 
of  Satan,  in  the  most  important  article  of  his  pretended  Re- 
formation. J  I  have  made  out  nearly  as  heavy  a  charge  against 
his  chief  followers,  Carlostad,  Zuinglius,  Ochin,  Calvin,  Beza, 
and  Cranmer.  With  respect  to  the  last  named,  who  under  Ed- 
ward VI.  and  his  fratricide  uncle,  the  duke  of  Somerset,  was 
the  chief  artificer  of  the  Anglican  church,  I  have  shown  that, 
from  his  youthful  life  in  a  college,  till  his  death  at  the  stake, 
he  exhibited  such  a  continued  scene  of  libertinism,  peijury,  hy- 
pocrisy, barbarity,  (in  burning  his  fellow  Protestants,)  profli- 
gacy, ingratitude,  and  rebellion,  as  is,  perhaps,  not  to  be 
matched  in  history.  I  have  proved  that  all  his  fellow-labour- 
ers and  fellow-sufferers  were  rebels  like  himself,  who  would 
have  been  put  to  death  by  Elizabeth,  if  they  had  not  been  exe- 
cuted by  Mary.  I  adduced  the  testimony  not  only  of  Erasmus 
and  other  Catholics,  but  also  of  the  gravest  Protestant  histori- 
ans, and  of  the  very  reformers  themselves,  in  proof  that  the 
morals  of  the  people,  so  fnr  from  being  changed  for  the  better, 
by  embracing  the  new  religion,  were  greatly  changed  for  the 
worse. ^     The  pretended  Reformation,  in  foreign  countries,  as 

•  Reflections  on  Popery,  by  Dr.  Stnrge?,  L.  L.  D.  &c. 
t  Letters  to  a  Preb.  Let.  V.  p.  178. 

\  Ibid,  p.  183,  where  Satan's  conference  with  Luther,  and  the  arguments  by 
which  he  induced  this  reformer  to  abolish  the  mass,  are  detailed,  from  Luther's 
works.     Tom.  vii.  p.  228. 

♦  Letteri  to  a  Prebendary,  Letter  V. 


Letter  XXI.  1^^ 

in  Germany,  the  Netherlands,  at  Geneva,  in  Switzerland, 
France,  and  Scotland,  besides  producing  popular  insurrections 
fackages,  demolitions,  sacrileges,  and  persecution  beyond  des- 
cription, excited  also  open  rebellions  and  bloody  civil  wars.* 
In  England,  where  our  writers  boast  of  the  orderly  manner  in 
which  the  change  of  religion  was  carried  on,  it,  nevertheless, 
most  unjustly  and  sacrilegiously  seized  upon,  and  destroyed,  in 
the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  six  hundred  and  forty-five  monasteries, 
ninety  colleges,  and  one  hundred  and  ten  hospitals,  besides  the 
bishopric  of  Durham ;  and,  under  Edward  VI.  or  rather  his 
profligate  uncle,  it  dissolved  two  thousand  three  hundred  and 
seventy-four  colleges,  chapels,  or  hospitals,  in  order  to  make 
princely  fortunes  of  their  property  for  that  uncle  and  his  un- 
principled comrades,  who,  like  banditti,  quarrelling  over  their 
spoils,  soon  brought  each  other  to  the  block.  Such  were  the 
fruits  of  sanctity,  every  where  produced  by  this  Reformation ! 

I  am,  &ic. 

J.  M. 

•  The  Huguenots  in  Dauphiny  alone,  as  one  of  their  writers  confesses,  burnt 
down  900  towns  or  tpUages,  and  murdered  378  priests  or  religious,  in  the  course 
of  one  rebellion.  The  number  of  churches  destroyed  by  them  throughout 
France,  is  computed  at  20,000.  The  history  of  England's  reformation  (though 
this  was  certainly  more  orderly  than  that  of  other  countries)  has  caused  the 
conversion  of  many  English  Protestauts:  it  produced  this  effect  on  James  II.  and 
his  first  consort,  the  mother  of  queen  Mary,  and  queen  Ann.  The  following  is 
the  account  which  the  latter  has  left  of  this  change,  and  which  is  to  be  found  in 
Dodd's  last  volume,  and  in  the  Fifty  Reasons  of  the  duke  of  Brunswick.  "  See- 
ing much  of  the  devotion  of  the  Catholics,  I  made  it  my  constant  prayer  that  if  I 
tvere  not,  I  might,  before  I  died,  be  in  the  true  religion.  I  did  not  doubt  but 
that  I  was  so  till  November  last,  when,  reading  a  book  called  The  History  of  tlu 
Reformation,  by  Dr.  Heylin,  which  I  had  heard  very  much  commended,  and  had 
been  told,  if  ever  I  had  any  doubts  in  my  religion  that  would  settle  me  :  instead 
of  which  I  found  it  the  description  of  the  horridest  sacrileges  in  the  world  ;  and 
could  find  no  cause  why  we  left  the  church,  but  for  three,  the  most  abominable 
ones.:  1st,  Henry  VIII.  renounced  the  Pope,  because  he  would  not  give  him 
leave  to  part  with  his  wife  and  marry  another  :  2dly,  Edward  VI.  was  a  child 
and  governed  by  his  uncle,  who  made  his  estate  out  of  the  church  lands  :  3dly, 
Elizabeth  not  being  lawful  heiress  to  the  crown,  had  no  way  to  keep  it  but  by 
renouncing  a  church  which  would  not  suffer  so  unlawful  a  thing.  I  coufett  I 
iaumotthi^  the  Holy  Ghost  could  ever  be  in  such  couacila." 

R 


[  130  ] 

LETTER  XXII. 

To  Mr.  J.  TOULMIjy. 

OBJECTIONS   ANSWERED. 

Dear  Sir, 
I  HAVE  received  your  letter,  animadverting  upon  mine  to  our 
common  friend,  Mr.  Brown,  respecting  the  fruits  of  sanctity,  as 
they  appear  in  our  respective  communions.  I  observe,  you  do 
not  contest  my  general  facts  or  arguments,  but  resort  to  objec- 
tions which  have  been  already  answered  in  \\\q>k\  or  in  my 
other  letters  now  before  the  public.  You  assert,  as  a  notorious 
fact,  that  for  several  ages,  prior  to  the  Reformation,  the  Catho- 
.lic  religion  was  sunk  into  ceremonies  and  pageantry,  and  that 
it  sanctioned  the  most  atrocious  crimes.  In  refutation  of  these 
calumnies,  I  have  referred  to  our  councils,  to  our  most  accre- 
dited authors  of  religion  and  morality,  and  to  the  lives  and 
deaths  of  our  most  renowned  saints,  during  the  ages  in  ques- 
tion. I  grant,  sir,  that  you  hold  the  same  language  on  this 
subject  that  other  Protestant  writers  do ;  but  I  maintain  that 
none  of  them  make  good  their  charges,  and  that  their  motive 
for  advancing  them  is  to  find  a  pretext  for  excusing  the  irreli- 
gion  of  the  pretended  Reformation.  You  next  extol  the  alleged 
sanctity  of  tiie  Protestant  sufferers,  called  martyr^,  in  the  un- 
happy persecution  of  queen  Mary's  reign.  I  have  discussed 
this  matter  at  some  length  in  The  Letters  to  a  Prebendary,  and 
have  shown,  in  opposition  to  John  Fox  and  his  copyists,  that 
some  of  these  pretended  martyrs  were  alive  when  he  wrote  the 
history  of  their  death  ;*  that  otiiers  of  them,  and  the  five  bi- 
shops in  particular,  so  far  from  being  saints,  were  notoriously  de- 
ficient in  the  ordinary  duties  of  good  subjects  and  honest  men  ;f 
that  others  again  were  notorious  assassins,  as  Gardener,  Flower, 
and  Rougli ;  or  ro})bers,  as  Debenham,  King,  Marsh,  Cauches, 
Gilbert,  Masse}^  hi\\  while  not  a  few  of  them  retracted  their 
errors,  as  Bilney,  Taylor,  Wassalia,  and  died,  to  all  appear- 
ance, Catholics.  To  the  whole  ponderous  folio  of  Yo\h  false- 
hoods I  have  opposed  the  genuine  and  edifying  Jitemuirs  of 
Missionary  Priests  and  other  Catholics^  who  suffered  death  for 
their  Religion  during  the  reigns  of  Elizabeth  and  the  Stuarts. 
Finally,  you  reproach  me  with  the  scandalous  lives  of  some  of 

•  See  Letter  IV.  on  PersetMition. 

t  See  Letter  V.  on  the  Reformation.  t  Letter  IV. 


L,etter  XXII,  131 

our  Popes,  during  the  middle  ages,  and  of  very  man>  Catho- 
lics of  different  descriptions,  througliout  the  church  at  the  pre- 
sent day;  and  you  refer  me  to  the  edifying  lives  of  a  great  num- 
ber of  Protestants,  now  living,  in  this  country. 

My  answer,  dear  sir,  in  brief,  to  your  concluding  objections, 
is  that  I,  as  well  as  Baronius,  Bellarmia,  and  other  Catholic 
writers,  have  unequivocally  admitted  that  some  few  of  our  pon- 
tiffs have  disgraced  themselves  by  their  crimes,  and  given  just 
cause  of  scandal  to  Christendom;*  but  I  have  remarked  that 
the  credit  of  our  cause  is  not  affected  by  the  personal  conduct  of 
particular  pastors,  who  succeed  one  another  in  a  regular  way, 
in  the  manner  that  the  credit  of  yours  is  by  the  behaviour  of 
your  founders,  who  professed  to  have  received  extraordinary 
commission  from  God  to  reform  religion. ^  I  acknowledge,  with 
the  same  unreservedness,  that  the  lives  of  a  great  proportion  of 
Catholics  in  this  and  other  parts  of  the  church,  is  a  disgrace  to 
that  holy  Catholic  church  which  they  profess  to  believe  in. 
Unhappy  members  of  the  true  religion,  by  whom  the  name  of 
God  (and  his  holy  church)  is  blasphemed  among  the  nations ! 
Rom.  ii.  24.  Unhappy  Catholics,  who  live  enemies  of  the  cross 
of  Christ,  whose  end  is  destruction,  who  mind  only  earthly 
things!  Philip  iii.  18.  But,  it  must  needs  be  that  scandals 
should  come  :  nevertheless,  wo  to  that  man  by  whom  the  scandal 
Cometh!  Mat.  xviii.  7.  In  short,  I  bear  a  willing  testimony  to 
the  public  and  private  worth  of  very  many  of  my  Protestant 
countrymen,  of  different  religions,  as  citizens,  as  subjects,  as 
friends,  as  children,  as  parents,  as  moral  men,  and  as  Chris- 
tians, in  the  general  sense  of  the  word ;  still  I  must  say  that  I 
find  the  best  of  them  far  short  of  the  holiness,  which  is  prescrib- 
ed in  the  Gospel  and  is  exemplified  in  the  lives  of  those  saints, 
whom  I  have  mentioned.  On  this  subject  I  will  quote  an  au- 
thority which  I  think  you  will  not  object  to.  Dr.  Hey  says  : 
"  In  England,  I  could  almost  say,  we  are  too  httle  acquainted 
with  contemplative  religion.  The  monk  painted  by  Sterne, 
may  give  us  a  more  favourable  idea  of  it,  than  our  prejudices 
generally  suggest.  I  once  travelled  with  a  recolet,  and  con- 
versed with  a  minim  at  his  convent :  and  they  both  had  that 
kind  of  character  which  Sterne  gives  to  his  monk:  that  refine- 
ment of  body  and  mind  ;  that  pure  glow  of  meliorated  passion, 
that  polished  piety  and  humanity. "J  In  a  former  letter  to  your 
society,  I  have  stated  that  sincere  humihty,  by  which,  from  a 

•  See  Letter  II.  on  Supremacy.  t  Ibid. 

X  Lectures  ia  Divinity,  vol.  i.  p.  364. 


132  Letter  XXIL 

thorough  knowledge  of  our  sins  and  misery,  we  become  little  m 
our  own  eyes,  and  try  to  avoid,  rather  than  to  gain  the  praise 
and  notice  of  others,  is  the  very  groundwork  of  all  other  Chris- 
tian virtues.  It  has  been  objected  to  Protestants,  ever  since  the 
defection  of  th'^ir  arrogant  patriarch,  Luther,  that  they  have 
said  little,  and  lidve  appeared  to  understand  less,  of  this  essen- 
tial virtue.  I  might  say  the  same  with  respect  to  the  necessity 
of  an  entire  subjugation  of  our  other  congenial  passions,  avarice, 
lust,  anger,  intemperance,  envy,  and  sloth,  as  I  have  said  of 
pride  and  vain  glory  ;  but  I  pass  over  these,  to  say  a  few  words 
of  certain  maxims  expressly  contained  in  Scripture.  It  cannot 
then  be  dcmed  that  our  Saviour  said  to  the  rich  young  man,  If 
thou  wilt  be  perfect,  go  sell  all  thou  hast  and  give  to  the 
poor,  and  thou  shalt  have  treasures  in  heaven  ;  or  that  he  de- 
clared, on  another  occasion,  There  are  eunuchs  who  have  made 
themselves  eunuchs  (continent)  for  the  kingdom  of  heavenh  sake. 
He  that  is  able  to  receive  it,  let  him  receive  it.  Mat.  xix.  12. 
Now  it  is  notorious  that  this  life  of  voluntary  poverty  and  per- 
petual chastity,  continues  to  be  vowed  and  observed  by  great 
numbers  of  both  sexes  in  the  Catholic  church ;  while  it  is  no- 
thing more  than  a  subject  of  ridicule  to  the  best  of  Protestants. 
Again  :  "  that  we  ought  to  fast,  is  a  truth  mote  manifest  than  it 
should  here  need  be  proved."  I  here  use  the  words  of  the 
church  of  England,  in  her  Homily  iv.  p.  11  ;  conformably 
with  which  doctrine,  your  church  enjoins,  in  her  Common 
Prayer  Book,  the  same  days  of  fasting  and  abstinence  as  the 
Catholic  church  does,  namely,  the  forty  days  of  Lent,  the  em- 
ber daysj  all  the  Fridays  in  the  year,  he. ;  nevertheless,  where 
is  the  Protestant  to  be  found,  who  will  submit  to  the  mortifica- 
tion of  fasting,  even  to  obey  his  own  church  ?  I  may  add,  that 
Christ  enjoins  constant  prayer,  Luke  xviii.  1 ;  conformably  to 
which  injunction,  the  Catholic  church  requires  her  clergy,  at 
least,  from  the  subdeacon  up  to  the  Pope,  daily  to  say  the  seven 
canonical  hours,  consisting  chiefly  of  Scriptural  psalms  and 
lessons,  and  which  take  up  in  the  recital,  near  an  hour  and  a 
half,  in  addition  to  their  other  devotions  :  now  what  pretext  had 
the  Protestant  clergy,  whose  pastoral  duties  are  so  much  light- 
er then  ours,  to  lay  aside  these  inspired  prayers,  except  in  devo- 
tion ?  Luther  himself  said  his  office,  for  some  time  \fter  his 
apostasy. — But  to  conclude  ,  as  it  is  of  so  much  importance  to 
ascertain  which  is  the  holy  church,  mentioned  in  your  creed ; 
and  as  you  can  follow  no  better  rule  for  this  purpose  than  to 
judge  of  the  tree  by  its  fruits,  so  let  me  advise  you  and  your 
friends  to  make  use  of  every  means  in  your  power  to  compare 


Letter  XXIII.  133 

regular  families,  places  of  education,  and  especially  ecclesiasti- 
cal establishments  of  the  different  communions,  with  each  other, 
as  to  morality  and  piety,  and  to  decide  for  yourselves  according 
to  what  you  observe  in  them. 

I  am,  he. 

J.  M. 


LETTER  XXIII. 
To  JAMES  BROWJV,  Esq.  ^c. 

OJV  DIVINE  ATTESTATION" OF  SANCTITY. 

Dear  Sir, 
Having  demonstrated  the  distinctive  holiness  of  the  Catholic 
church,  in  her  doctrine,  her  practices,  and  \\ev  fruits  of  sanctity, 
I  am  prepared  to  show  that  God  himself  has  borne  testimony  to 
her  holiness,  and  to  those  very  doctrines  and  practices,  which 
Protestants  object  to  as  unholy  and  superstitious,  by  the  many 
incontestable  miracles  he  has  wrought  in  her  and  in  their  fa- 
vour, from  the  agjjl  of  the  apostles  down  to  the  present  age. 

The  learned  Protestant  advocates  of  revelation,  such  as  Gro- 
tius,  Abbadie,  Paley,  Watson,  Stc.  in  defending  this  common 
cause  against  Infidels,  all  agree  in  the  sentiment  of  the  last 
named,  that  "  Miracles  are  the  criterion  of  truth."  Accordingly 
they  observe,  that  both  Moses,  Exod.  iv.  xiv.  JVumh.xvi.  29,  and 
Jesus  Christ,  JoAw  37, 38. — xiv.  12. — xv.24.  constantly  appealed 
to  the  prodigies  they  wrought,  in  attestation  of  their  divine  mis- 
sion and  doctrine.  Indeed  the  whole  history  of  God's  people, 
from  the  beginning  of  the  world  down  to  the  time  of  our  Bless- 
ed Saviour,  was  nearly  a  continued  series  of  miracles.*  The 
latter,  so  far  from  confining  the  power  of  working  them  to  his 
own  person  or  time,  expressly  promised  the  same,  and  even  a 
greater  power  of  this  nature  to  his  disciples,  Mark  xvi.  17. 
.i^ohn  xiv.  12.  For  both  the  reasons  here  mentioned,  namely, 
that  the  Almighty  was  pleased  to  illustrate  the  society  of  his 
chosen  servants,  both  under  the  law  of  nature  and  the  written 
law,  with  frequent  miracles,  and  that  Christ  promised  a  cod- 

•  To  say  nothing  of  the  Urim  and  Thummim,  the  Water  of  Jealousy,  and  the 
superabundant  harvest  of  the  sabbatical  year,  it  is  incontestable,  from  the  Goe- 
pel  of  St.  John  v.  2,  that  the  probatical  pond  was  endowed  by  an  angel  with  a 
miraculous  power  of  healing  every  kind  of  disease,  in  the  time  of  Christ 


134  Letter  XXIIL 

tlimance  of  them  to  his  disciples  under  the  new  law,  we  are  led 
to  expect  that  the  true  church  should  be  distinguished  by  mira- 
cles, wi-oujuht  in  her,  and  in  proof  of  her.  Accordingly  the 
t'atljcrs  and  doctors  of  the  Catholic  church,  among  other  proofs 
in  her  favour,  have  constantly  appealed  to  miracles,  by  which 
she  is  i!li;itrated,  and  reproached  their  contemporary  heretics 
and  scliisinntics  with  tlie  want  of  them.  Thus  St.  Irengeus,  a 
di>cipie  of  St.  Polycarp,  who  himself  was  a  disciple  of  St.  John 
the  Evangelist,  reproaches  the  heretics,  against  whom  he  writes, 
that  they  could  not  give  sight  to  the  blind,  hearing  to  the  deaf, 
cast  out  devils,  or  raise  the  dead  to  life,  as  he  testifies  was  fre- 
quently done  in  the  true  church.^  Thus  also  his  contemporary, 
Tertullian,  speaking  of  the  heretics,  says :  "  I  wish  to  see  the 
miracles  they  have  wrought."f  St.  Pacian,  in  the  fourth  cen- 
tur\-,  writing  against  the  schismatic  Novatus,  scornfully  asks : 
"  Has  he  the  gift  of  tongues  or  prophecy  ?  Has  he  restored  the 
dead  tolifeP"|  The  great  St.  Augustin,  in  various  passages 
of  his  works,  refers  to  the  miracles  wrought  in  the  Catholic 
church,  in  evidence  of  her  veracity.^  St.  Nicetas,  bishop  of 
Treves,  in  the  sixth  century,  advises  queen  Clodosind,  in  order 
to  convert  her  husband,  Alboin,  king  of  the  Lombards,  from 
Arianism,  to  induce  him  to  send  confidential  messengers  to  wit- 
ness the  miracles  wrought  at  the  tombs  of  St.  Martin,  St.  Ger- 
inanus,  or  St.  Hilary,  in  giving  sight  to  the  blind,  speech  to  the 
dumb,  he. ;  adding :  "  Are  such  things  done  in  the  churches  of 
the  Arlans  r"||  About  the  same  time,  Levigild,  king  of  the 
Goths  in  Spain,  an  Arian,  who  was  converted,  or  nearly  so,  by 
his  Catholic  son,  St.  Hermengild,  reproached  his  Arian  bishops 
that  no  miracles  were  wrought  among  them,  as  was  the  case, 
he  said,  among  the  Catholics.^  The  seventh  century  was  il- 
lustrated by  the  miracles  of  our  apostle  St.  Augustin,  of  Can- 
terbury, wrought  in  confirmation  of  the  doctrine  which  he 
taught,  as  was  recorded  on  his  tomb  5^*  and  this  doctrine,  by 


♦  Lib.  ii.  contra  Haer.  c.  31.  t  Lib.  De  Praescr. 

^  E|).  ii.  ad  Syinphor. 

i  "  Dubitamiip  nos  ejus  Erclesiae  condere  g^remio,  quse  usque  ad  confessionem 
generis  humaui  ad  Apostolica  sede,  per  successionem  Episcoporum  (frustra 
baeretici?  circurnlutraiitil)U.«,  et  partim  plebis  ipsius  judicio,  partim^oncilioruxn 
gravitate,  pr»rtim  oi'vAmMiraculorum  m///ci/a/e  daranatis)  culmen  auctoritatiaob- 
tinuit."— De  Utilit.  Cre.f.  c.  iv. 

II   Labbe'?  ('on(;il.  torn  v.  \\  }{3o.  If   f'i'eg;.  Turon.  \.  ix.  c,  15. 

•*  "  Hie  requiescit  1).  Ausfiiiitiiius,  &r.  qtn  operatione  miraculorum  suffultus, 
Fdclberthum  Hcgem  ar  s:ciitem  illiuF  ab  idolonim  cultu  ad  fidem  Christi  con- 
Vertit." — Bed.  Erdos.  Hi?t,  1.  ii.  c  3.  See,  in  particular,  the  account  of  this 
eaint^s  restoring  u^hi  to  a  blind  man  in  confirmation  of  his  doctrine.     Ibid.  c.  2. 


Letter  XXIII.  135 

the  confession  of  tiie  learned  Fs-yt^staiUg,  was  purely  tiie  Roman 
Catholic.*  In  the  eleventh  eoiitury,  we  hear  a  celvbrated 
doctor,  speaking  of  the  proofs  of  th,e  Catholic,  religion,  exclaim 
thus  :  "  O  Lord !  if  what  we  believe  is  an  error,  thou  art  the 
author  of  it,  since  it  is  confirmetVainpngst  .us  by  those  sis^ns  and 
prodigies  which  could  not  be  wrought  but  by  thee."f  In  short, 
St.  Bernard,  St.  Dominic,  St.  Xavier,,vSic.  all  appealed  to  the 
miracles,  which  God  wrought  I'V  their  hands  in  proof  of  the 
Cathohc  doctrine.  1  need  not  incntiovi  tiie  controversial  works 
of  Bellarmin  and  other  modern  sclioolinen ;.  nev^ertljei ess,  I  can- 
not help  observing,  that  even  Lutjier,  when.  Uie  Anabaptists, 
adopting  hb,  own  principles,  had  proceeded  to  excesses  of  doc- 
trine and  practice  which  he  disapproved  ol',  ^x^quired  them  to 
prove  their  authority  for  their  lijuovations  by  the  performance 
of  miracles  !J  You  will  naturally  ask,  dear  sir^  how  Luthet 
himself  got  rid  of  the  argunu-nt  implied  by  this  requisition, 
which  it  is  evident,  bore  as  strongly  against  him,  as  against  the 
Anabaptists  ?  On  one  occasion,  lie  an&wered  thus :  "  I  have 
made  an  agreement  with  the  Lord  not  to  send  me  any  visions, 
or  dreams,  or  angels, "§  he.  On  auother  occasion,  he  boasts 
of  his  visions  as  follows:  "  I  also  was  in  spirit,"  and,  *'  if  I 
must  glory  in  what  belongs  to  me,  I  have  seen  more  spirits  than 
ihey  (the  Swinkfeldians,  who  denied  the  real  presence)  mil  see 
in  a  whole  yeiir."|| 

Such  has  beei  the  doctrine  of  the  fathers  and  Catholic  wri- 
ters concerning  afiiracles  in  general,  as  divine  attestations  in  fa- 
vour of  that  church  in  which  God  is  pleased  to  work  them.  I 
will  now  mention,  ^r  refer  to  a  few  particular  miraculous  events 
of  unquestionable  evidence,  which  have  illustrated  this  church, 
during  the  eighteen  centuries  of  her  existence. 

No  Christian  quesiions  the  miracles  and  prophecies  of  the 
apostles  ;  and  if  they  do  not,  why  should  any  Christian  question 
the  vision  and  prophecy  of  the  apostolic  saint  Polycarp,  the 
angel  of  the  church  of  Srjyrna,  Rev.  ii.  8,  concerning  the  man- 
ner of  his  future  martyrdom,  namely,  by  fire  FIT  or  the  testi- 
mony of  his  episcopal  correspondent,  who  was  likewise  a  disci- 
ple of  the  apostles,  St.  Ignatius  bishop  of  Antioeh,  who  testifies 
that  the  wild  beasts,  let  loose  upon  the  martyrs,  were  frequently 
restrained  by  a  divine  power  from  hurting  them  ?     In  conse 

*  The  Centuriaiors  of  Magdeburg,  Saac.  6.  Bale.  In  Act.  Rom.  Pont.  Hum- 
phrey's Jesuit,  &c. 

t  Ric.  a  S.  Vict,  de  Trinit.  1.  i.  t  Sleidan. 

i  Manliua  in  loc.  oommun.     See  Brierley's  Apology,  p.  448. 

I]  hwih,  ad  Senat.  GivU,  Germ.  ^  Genuine  Acts,  by  Ruinart, 


136  Letter  XXIIL 

quence  of  this  he  prayed  that  it  might  not  be  the  case  with 
bini.*  St.  Irena^us,  bishop  of  Lyons,  was  the  disciple  of  St- 
Poly  carp,  and  hke  him,  an  illustrious  martyr :  shall  we  then 
call  in  question  his  testimony,  when  he  declares,  as  I  have  no- 
ticed above,  that  miracles,  even  to  the  revival  of  the  dead,  fre- 
quentl3'  took  place  in  the  Catholic  church,  but  never  among  the 
heretics?!  Or  shall  we  disbelieve  that  of  the  learned  Origen, 
in  the  next  century,  who  says  tliat  it  was  usual  with  the  Chris- 
tians of  his  time  to  drive  away  devils,  heal  the  sick,  and  foretel 
things  to  come  :  adding,  "  God  is  my  witness,  I  would  not  re- 
<:ommend  the  religion  of  Jesus  by  fictitious  stories,  but  only  b^ 
clear  and  certain  facts. "|  One  of  Origen's  scholars  was  St. 
Gregory,  bishop  of  Neocesarea,  surnamed  Thaumaturgus^  or 
Wonderworker,  for  the  numerous  and  astonishing  miracles 
whicli  God  wrought  by  his  means.  Many  of  these,  even  to  the 
•topping  the  course  of  a  flood,  and  the  moving  of  a  mountain, 
are  recorded  by  the  learned  fathers,  who,  soon  after,  wrote  his 
life.<^  St.  Cyprian,  the  great  ornament  of  the  third  century, 
recounts  several  miracles  which  took  place  in  it,  some  of  which 
prove  the  blessed  eucharist  to  be  a  sacrifice,  and  the  lawfulness 
of  receiving  it  under  one  kind.  In  the  middle  of  the  fourth 
century  happened  that  wonderful  miracle,  when  the  emperor 
Julian  the  Apostate,  attempting  to  rebuild  the  temple  of  Jerusa- 
lem, in  order  to  disprove  the  prophecy  of  Daniel,  concerning 
it,  Dan.  ix.  27,  tempests,  whirlwinds,  earthquakes,, and  fiery 
eruptions  convulsed  the  scene  of  the  undertaking,  maiming  or 
blasting  the  thousands  of  Jews  and  other  labourers  employed  in 
the  work,  and,  in  short,  rendering  the  completion  of  it  utterly 
impossible.  In  the  mean  time  a  luminous  cross,  surrounded 
with  a  circle  of  rays,  appeared  in  the  heivens,  and  numerous 
crosses  were  impressed  on  the  bodies  and  garments  of  the  per- 
sons present.  These  prodigies  are  so  sfrongly  attested  by  al- 
most all  the  authors  of  the  age,  Arians  md  Pagans,  no  less  than 
Catholics, II  that  no  one  but  a  downrigkt  sceptic  can  call  them  in 
question.  They  have  accordingly  been  acknowledged  by  the 
most  learned  Protestants. IT     Another  miracle,  which  may  vie 

•  Ep.  ad  Roman,  t  CoQtra  Haor.  1,  ii.  c.  31. 

I  Contra  Cels.  1.  i,  ^ 
i  Gre°^.  Nys8.  Euseb.  1.  vi.  St.  Basil,  St.  Jerom. 

II  Besides  the  testimony  of  the  Fathers,  St,  Gregory  Nazianzen,  St.  Chrysoft- 
ttoai,  St.  Aml)ro«e,  and  of  the  hJHtorians  Bocrfttes,  Sozomen  Theodoret,  &c.  the»« 
events  are  al.xo  acknowledged  by  Philostorgius  tlie  Arian,  Ammianus  Marcelli- 
nu?  the  Pagan,  &;c. 

T  i3i?hoj)  Warburton  published  a  Ixsok,  called  Julian,  in  proof  of  these  mira* 
flies.     They  uro  also  acknowledged  by  Bishop  Halifax,  Disc.  p.  23. 


Letter  XXIII.  137 

with  the  above  mentioned,  for  the  number  and  quality  of  its 
witnesses,  took  place  in  the  following  century,  at  Typassus  in 
Africa ;  where  a  whole  congregation  of  Catholics  being  assem- 
bled to  perform  their  devotions,  contrary  to  the  orders  of  the 
Arian  tyrant,  Hunnerick,  their  right  hands  were  chopped  off,  and 
their  tongues  cut  out  to  the  roots,  by  his  command:  nevertheless 
.they  continued  to   speak   as  perfectly  as  they  did  before  this 
barbarous  act.*     I  pass  over  numberless  miracles  recorded  by 
SS.  Basil,  Athanasius,  Jerom,  Chrysostom,  Ambrose,  Augustin, 
and   the   other  illustrious  fathers  and  church  historians,  who 
adorned  the  fourth,  fifth,  and  sixth  centuries  of  Christianity ; 
and  shall  barely  mention  one  miracle,  which  both  the  last  men- 
tioned holy  bishops  relate,  as  having  been  themselves  actual 
witnesses  of  it,  that  of  restoring  sight  to  a  blind  man,  by  the 
application  to  his  eyes  of  a  cloth  which  had  touched  the  relics 
of  SS.  Gervasius,  and  Protasius.f    The  latter  saint,  one  of  the 
most  enlightened  men  who  ever  handled  a  pen,   gives  an  ac- 
count, in  the  work  to  which  I  have  just  referred^  of  a  great 
number  of  miracles,  wrought  in  Africa,  during  his  episcopacy, 
by  the  relics  of  St.  Stephen,  and  among  the  rest,  of  seventy 
wrought  in  his  own  diocese  of  Hippo,  and  some  of  them  in  his 
own  presence,  in  the  course  of  two  years ;  among  these  was  the 
restoration  of  three  dead  bodies  to  life. 

From  this  notice  of  the  great  St.  Augustin  of  Hippo,  in  the 
fifth  century,  I  proceed  to  observe,  concerning  St.  Augustin  of 
Canterbury,  at  the  end  of  the  sixth,  that  the  miracles  wrought 
by  him,  were  not  only  recorded  on  his  tomb,  and  in  the  history 
of  the  venerable  Bede  and  other  writers,  but  that  an  account  of 
them  was  transmitted,  at  the  time  they  took  place,  by  St.  Gre- 
gory to  Eulogius,  patriarch  of  St.  Alexandria,  in  an  Epistle, 
still  extant,  in  which  this  Pope  compares  them  with  those  per- 
formed by  the  apostles.§  The  latter  saint  wrote  hkewise  an 
Epistle  to  St.  Augustin  himself,  which  is  still  extant  in  his 
works,  and  in  Bede's  history,  cautioning  him  against  being 
elated  with  vain  glory,  on  the  occasion  of  these  miracles,  and 

»  The  vouchers  for  this  miracle  are  Victor  Vitensis,  Hist.  Persec.  Vandal.  1. 
ii.  the  emperor  Justinian,  who  declares  that  he  had  seen  some  of  the  sufferers. 
Codex  Just.  Tit.  27,  the  Greek  historian  Procopius,  who  says  he  had  conversed 
with  them,  L.  i.  de  Bell.  Vand.  c.  8.  ^Eneas  of  Geza,  a  Platonic  philosopher, 
who  having  examined  their  mouths,  protested  that  he  was  not  so  much  surprised 
at  their  being  able  to  talk  as  at  their  being  able  to  live.  De  Immort.  Anim.  Victor. 
Turon.  Isid.  Hispal.  Greg.  Magn.  &c.  The  miracle  is  admitted  by  Abbadie, 
Dodwell,  Mosheim,  and  other  learned  Protestants, 
t  Aug.  De  Civit.  Dei,  1.  xxii.  p.  8.  t  Ibid.  1.  xxiu 

)  Epist.  S.  Greg.  1.  vii. 


138  Letter  XXIII. 

reminding  him  that  God  had  bestowed  the  power  of  working 
them,  not  on  his  own  account,  but  for  the  conversion  of  the 
English  nation.*  On  the  supposition  that  our  apostle  had 
wrought  no  miracles,  what  farces  must  these  Epistles  have  ex- 
hibited among  the  first  characters  of  the  Christian  world. 

Among  the  numberless  and  well  attested  miracles  which  the 
histories  of  the  middle  ages  present  to  our  view,  I  stop  at  those 
of  the  illustrious  abbot  St.  Bernard,  in  the  twelfth  century,  to 
whose  sanctity  the  most  eminent  Protestant  writers  have  borne 
high  testimony.!  This  saint,  in  the  life  of  his  friend,  St.  Ma- 
lachy  of  Armagh,  among  other  miracles,  mentions  the  cure  of 
the  withered  hand  of  a  youth,  by  the  application  of  his  friend's 
dead  hand  to  it.  J  But  this,  and  all  the  miracles  which  St, 
Bernard  mentions  of  other  saints,  quite  disappear,  when  com- 
pared with  those  wrought  by  himself;  which  for  their  splendour 
and  publicity,  never  were  exceeded.  All  France,  Germany, 
Switzerland,  and  Italy  bore  testimony  to  them ;  and  prelates, 
princes,  and  the  emperor  himself  were  often  the  spectators  of 
them.  In  a  journey  which  the  saint  made  into  Germany,  he 
was  followed  by  Philip,  archdeacon  of  Liege,  who  was  sent  by 
Sampson,  archbishop  of  Rheims,  to  observe  his  actions. §  This 
writer  accordingly,  gives  an  account  of  a  vast  nn 'Tiber  of  in- 
stantaneous cures,  wliich  the  holy  abbot  performed  on  the 
lame,  the  blind,  the  paralytic,  and  other  diseased  persons,  with 
all  the  circumstances  of  them.  Speaking  of  those  Awought  at 
Cologne,  he  says :  *'  They  were  not  performed  in  a  corner  ; 
but  the  whole  city  was  witness  to  them.  If  any  one  doubts  or 
is  curious,  he  may  easily  satisfy  himself  on  the  spot,  especially 
as  some  of  them  were  wrought  on  persons  of  no  inconsiderable 
rank  and  reputation. "||  A  great  number  of  these  miracles  were 
jjerformed  in  express  confirmation  of  the  Catholic  doctrine 
which  he  defended.  Thus  preaching  at  Sarlat  against  the  im- 
pious and  impure  Henricians,  a  species  of  Albigenses,  he  took 
some  loaves  of  bread  and  blessed  them  :  after  which  he  said  : 
"  By  this  you  shall  know  that  I  preach  to  you  the  true  doc- 
trine, and  llie  heretics  ?.  false  doctrine  :  all  your  sick^  who  shall 
eat  of  ihis  bread,  shall  rtcovcr  their  health  ;"  which  prediction 

•  Ibid,  etilist.  Bed,l.i.  0.31.  ^ 

X  Luther,  Calvin,  Bucer,  (Tcolompadius,  Jewel,  Whitaker,  Mosheim,  &c. 

\  Vita  Maliioh.  inter  Oper.  Bern. 

\  St.  Bernard's  Life  was  written  by  his  three  contemporaries,  William,  ab- 
bot of  St.  1  liierry,  Arnold,  abbot  of  Bonevaux,  and  Geoffery,  the  saint's  secre- 
tary, and  by  other  early  writers :  his  own  eloquent  Epistles,  and  other  works* 
furnish  many  particulars. 

Jl  Published  by  Mabillon. 


Letter  XXIII.  130 

was  confirmed  by  the  event.*  St.  Bernard  himself,  in  the  most 
celebrated  of  his  works,f  addressed  to  Pope  Eugenius  III.  re- 
fers to  the  miracles,  which  God  enabled  him  to  work,  by  way 
of  justifying  himself  for  having  preached  up  the  second  cru- 
sade;  J  and,  in  his  letter  to  the  people  of  Thoulouse,  he  men- 
tions his  having  detected  the  heretics  among  them,  not  only  by 
words,  but  also  by  miracles. § 

The  miracles  of  St.  Francis  Xavier,  the  apostle  of  India,  who 
was  cotemporary  with  Luther,  in  number,  splendour,  and  pub- 
licity, may  vie  with  St.  Bernard's.  They  consisted  in  foretell- 
ing future  events,  speaking  unknown  languages,  calming  tem- 
pests at  sea,  curing  various  maladies,  and  raising  the  dead  to 
life ;  and  though  they  took  place  in  remote  countries,  yet  they 
were  verified  in  the  same,  soon  after  the  saint's  death,  by  vir- 
tue of  a  commission  from  John  III.  king  of  Portugal,  and  they 
were  generally  acknowledged,  not  only  by  Europeans  of  differ- 
ent religions  in  the  Indies,  ||  but  also  by  the  native  Mahometans 
and  Pagans. IT  At  the  same  time  with  this  saint  lived  the  holy 
contemplative  St.  Philip  Neri,  in  proof  of  whose  miracles  three 
hundred  witnesses,  some  of  them  persons  of  high  rank,  were 
juridically  examined.**  The  following  century  was  illustra- 
ted by  the  shining  virtues  and  attested  miracles,  even  to  the 
resurrection  of  the  dead,  of  St.  Francis  of  Sales,f  f  as  it  was 
also  by  those  of  St.  John  Francis  Regis,  concerning  which, 
twenty-two  bishops  of  Languedoc  wrote  thus  to  Pope  Clement 
XI :  "  We  are  witnesses  that,  before  the  tomb  of  F.  J.  F.  Regi?, 
the  blind  see,  the  lame  walk,  the  deaf  hear,  the  dumb  speak."  J  J 
You  will  understand,  dear  sir,  that  I  mention  but  a  few  of  the 
saints,  and  with  respect  to  these,  but  a  few  of  their  miracles,  as 
my  object  is  to  prove  the  single  fact  that  God  has  illustrated 
the  Catholic  church,  chiefly  by  means  of  his  saints,  with  unde- 
niable miracles,  in  the  different  ages  of  her  existence.  What 
now  will  you,  dear  sir,  and  your  friends  pay  to  the  evidence, 
here  adduced  ?  Will  you  say  that  all  the  holy  fathers,  up  to 
the  apostolic  age,  and  that  all  the  ecclesiastical  writers  down  to' 
the  Reformation,  and,  since  this  period,  that  all  Catholic  au- 
thors, prelates  and  officials,  have  been  in  a  league  to  deceive 


•  Geof.inVit.  Bern. 

t  De  Consideratione.  $  De  Consid.  1.  ii.         *  Ad  Tolos.  Ep.  241. 

11  See  the  testimonies  of  Hackluyt,  Baldeus,  and  Tavernier,  all  Protestaala^ 
in  Bouhour's  Life  of  St.  Xavier,  translated  by  the  poet  Dryden. 
^  Ibid.  •»  See  Butler's  Saints'  Lives,  May  26. 

tt  Sec  MarsoUier's  Life  of  St.  F.  de  Sales,  translated  by  Dr.  Coombea. 
U  See  his  Life  by  Daubenton,  which  is  abridged  by  Butler,  June  16. 


140  Letter  XXIIL 

mankind  ?  In  short,  that  they  are  all  liars  and  impostors  alike  ? 
Such,  in  fact,  is  the  absurd  and  horrible  system,  which,  to  get 
rid  of  the  DIVINE  ATTESTATION,  in  favour  of  the  Catho- 
lic church,  the  celebrated  Dr.  Conyers  Middleton  has  declared 
for ;  as  have  most  Protestant  writers  who  have  handled  the  sub- 
ject, since  the  publication  of  his  Free  Inquiry.  This  system, 
however,  which  is  a  libel  on  human  nature,  does  not  only  lead 
to  general  scepticism  in  other  respects,  but  also  undermines  the 
credit  of  the  Gospel  itself.  For  if  all  the  ancient  fathers  and 
other  writers  are  to  be  disbelieved,  respecting  the  miracles  of  their 
times,  and  even  those  which  they  themselves  witnessed,  upon 
what  grounds  are  we  to  believe  them,  in  their  report  of  the 
miracles  which  they  had  heard  of  Christ  and  his  apostles,  those 
main  props  of  the  Gospel  and  our  common  Christianity  ?  Who 
knows  but  they  may  have  forged  all  the  contents  of  the  former, 
and  tlie  whole  history  of  the  latter  f  It  was  impossible  these 
consequences  should  escape  the  penetration  of  Middleton :  but 
a  worse  consequence,  in  his  opinion,  which  would  follow  from 
admitting  the  veracity  of  the  holy  fathers,  namely,  a  divine  at- 
testation of  the  sanctity  of  the  Catholic  church,  banished  his 
dread  of  the  former.  Let  him  now  speak  to  this  point  for  him- 
self, in  his  own  flowing  periods.  He  begins  with  establishing 
an  important  fact,  which  I  also  have  been  labouring  to  prove, 
where  he  says :  "  It  must  be  confessed  that  the  claim  to  a  mira- 
culous power  was  universally  asserted  and  believed  'n\  all  Chris- 
tian countries  and  in  all  ages  of  the  church,  till  the  time  of  the 
Reformation  ;  for  ecclesiastical  history  makes  no  difference  be- 
tween one  age  and  another,  but  carries  on  the  succession  of  its 
miracles,  as  of  all  other  common  events,  through  all  of  them  in- 
differently to  that  memorable  period.*  As  far  as  church  histo- 
rians can  illustrate  any  thing,  there  is  not  a  single  point,  in  all 
history,  so  constantly,  explicitly,  and  unanimously  affirmed  by 
them  as  the  continual  succession  of  those  powers,  through  all 
ages,  from  the  earliest  father,  who  first  mentions  them,  down  to 
the  Reformation  ;  which  same  succession  is  still  further  deduced 
by  persons  of  the  same  eminent  character  for  probity,  learning 
and  dignity,  in  the  Romish  church,  to  this  very  day ;  so  that 
the  only  doubt  which  can  remain  with  us  is,  whether  church 
historians  are  to  be  trusted  or  not :  for  if  any  credJl  be  due  to 
them  in  the  present  case,  it  must  reach  to  all  or  none :  because 
the  reason  for  believing  them  in  any  one  age  will  be  found  to 
be  of  equal  force  in  all,  as  far  as  it  depends  on  the  character  of 


•  Free  Inquiry,  Introduct.  Disc.  p.  xlv. 


Letter  XXIIL  14l 

the  persons  attesting,  or  on  the  thing  attested."*  We  shall 
now  hear  Dr.  Middleton's  decision  on  this  weighty  matter,  and 
upon  what  grounds  it  is  formed.  He  says  :  "  The  prevaihng 
opinion  of  Protestants,  namely,  of  Tillotson,  Marshal,  Dodwell, 
&c.  is,  that  miracles  continued  during  the  three  first  centuries. 
Dr.  Waterland  brings  them  down  to  the  fourth,  Dr.  Beriman  to 
the  fifth.  These  unwarily  betrayed  the  Protestant  cause  into 
die  hands  of  its  enemies  :  for  it  was  in  those  primitive  ages, 
particularly  in  the  third,  fourth,  and  fifth,  those  flourishing 
times  of  miracles,  in  which  the  chief  corruptions  of  Popery 
monkery,  the  worship  of  relics,  invocation  of  saints,  prayers  fof . 
the  dead,  superstitious  use  of  images  and  of  sacraments  were 
introduced. "f  "  We  shall  find,  after  the  conversion  of  the 
Roman  empire,  the  greater  part  of  their  boasted  miracles  were 
wrought  either  by  monks,  or  relics,  or  the  sign  of  the  cross, 
&c. :  wherefore,  if  we  admit  the  miracles,  we  must  admit  the 
rites  for  the  sake  of  which  they  were  wrought :  they  both  rest 
on  the  same  bottom. "f  "  Every  one  may  see  what  a  resem- 
blance the  principles  and  practice  of  the  fourth  century,  as  they 
are  described  by  the  most  eminent  fathers  of  that  age,  bear  to 
the  present  rites  of  the  Popish  church.''''^  "  When  we  reflect  on 
the  surprising  confidence  with  which  the  fathers  of  the  fourth 
hge  aflirmed,  as  true,  what  they  themselves  had  forged,  or  knew 
to  be  forged,  it  is  natural  to  suspect  that  so  bold  a  defiance  of 
truth  could  not  be  acquired  or  become  general  at  once,  but 
must  have  been  gradually  carried  to  that  height  by  the  exam- 
ple of  former  ages."||  Such  are  the  grounds  on  which  this 
shameless  declaimer  accuses  all  the  most  holy  and  learned  men, 
whom  the  world  has  produced  during  1800  years,  of  forgery 
and  a  combination  to  cheat  mankind.  He  does  not  say  a  word 
to  show  that  the  combination  itself  is  either  probable  or  possi- 
ble ;  all  he  advances  is,  that  this  libel  on  human  nature,  is 
necessary  for  the  support  of  Protestantism ;  for  he  says,  and 
this  with  evident  truth  :  "  By  granting  the  Romanists  but  a 
single  age  of  miracles,  after  the  time  of  the  apostles,  we  shall  be 
entangled  in  a  series  of  difliculties,  whence  we  can  never  fairly 
extricate  ourselves,  till  we  allow  the  same  powers  also  to  the 
present  age."ir 

Methinks  I  hear  some  of  your  society  thus  asking  me,  Bo  you 
Aen  pretend  that  your  church  possesses  the  miraculous  powers  at 

•  Ibid.  Preface,  p.  xv.  +  Introd.  p.  li. 

±  Introd.  p,  Ixvi.  ♦  Ibid.  Ixy. 

Ibid,  p,  Ixxxiv.  T  Ibid.  p.  xcn. 


! 


142  Letter  XXIIL 

the  present  day  9  I  answer,  that  the  church  never  possessed 
miraculous  powers  in  the  sense  of  most  Protestant  writers,  so  as 
to  be  able  to  eflect  cures  or  other  supernatural  events  at  her  mere 
pleasure  :  for  even  the  apostles  could  not  do  this,  as  we  learn 
li'om  the  history  of  the  lunatic  child,  Mat.  xvii.  16  :  but  this  I 
say,  that  the  Catholic  church,  being  always  the  beloved  spouse 
of  Christ,  Rev.  xxi.  9,  and  continuing  at  all  times  to  bring 
forth  children  of  heroical  sanctity,  God  fails  not  in  this, 
any  more  than  in  past  ages,  to  illustrate  her  and  them  by 
unquestionable  miracles :  accordingly  in  those  processes 
which  are  constantly  going  on,  at  the  apostolical  See,  for 
tlie  canonization  of  new  saints,*  fresh  miracles  of  a  recent 
date  continue  to  be  proved  with  the  highest  degree  of  evidence, 
as  I  can  testify  from  having  perused,  on  the  spot,  the  oiFicial 
printed  account  of  some  of  them. f  For  the  further  satisfaction 
of  your  friends,  I  will  inform  them  that  I  have  had  satisfactory 
proof  that  the  astonishing  catastrophe  of  Louis  XVI.  and  his 
queen,  in  being  beheaded  on  a  scaffold,  was  foretold  by  a  nun  of 
Fougeres,  Sulhu-  Nativite,  twenty  years  before  it  happened,  and 
that  the  banishment  of  the  1^'rench  clergy  from  their  country, 
long  before  it  happened,  was  predicted  by  the  holy  French 
pilgrim,  Benedict  Labre,  whose  miracles  caused  the  conversion 
of  the  late  Rev.  IMr.  Thayer,  an  American  clergyman,  who 
being  at  Rome,  witnessed  several  of  them.  With  respect  to 
miraculous  cures  of  a  late  date,  I  have  the  most  respectable  at- 
testation of  several  of  them,  and  1  am  well  acquainted  with  four 
or  five  persons  who  have  experienced  them.  The  following 
facts  are  respectfully  attested,  but  at  much  greater  length,  by  the 
Rev.  Thomas  Sadler,  of  Trafford,  near  Manchester,  and  the 
Rev.  J.  Cradiorne,  of  Garswood,  near  Wigan  : — Joseph  Lamb, 
of  Eccles,  near  Manchester,  now  twenty-eight  years  old,  on  the 
12th  of  August,  1814,  fell  from  a  ha3'-rick,  four  yards  and  a 
half  high,  by  which  accident  it  was  conceived  the  spine  of  his 
back  was  broken.  Certain  it  is,  that  he  could  neither  walk  nor 
stand  without  crutches,  down  to  the  second  of  October,  and  that 
he  described  himself  as  feeling  the  most  exquisite  pain  in  his 
back.    On  that  day,  having  prevailed  with  much  difficulty  upon 

•  Among  the  late  ranoniV^tions  are  those,  in  1R07  and  1808,  oTs.  F.  Carac- 
riolo,  founder  of  the  Re°;ular  Clorlcs ;  of  St.  Angela  de  Mercis,  foundress  of  the 
Ursuline  Nuni,  of  St.  Mary  of  tlie  Incarnation,  Mile.  Acarie,  Sic.  One  of  the 
latest  beatifications  is  that  of  B.  AUoiiso  Liguori,  bishop  of  St.  Agata  de  Goti. 

t  One  of  these,  proved  in  the  ])rorei<s  of  the  last  mentioned  saint,  consisted  in 
the  cure  and  restoration  of  an  amyMattd  breast  of  a  woman,  who  was  at  the  point 
of  dUath  from  a  cancer. 


Letter  XXIII.  I43 

his  father,  who  was  then  a  Protestant,  to  take  him  in  a  cart  with 
his  wife  and  two  friends,  Thos.  Cutler  and  Eliz.  Dooley,  to 
Garswood,  near  Wig;an,  where  the  hand  of  F.  Arrowsniith,  one 
of  the  Catholic  priests  who  suffered  death  at  Lancaster,  for  the 
exercise  of  his  reIij?ion,  in  the  reign  of  Charles  I.  is  preserved, 
and  has  often  caused  wonderful  cures,  he  got  himself  conveyed 
to  the  altar  rails  of  the  chapel,  and  there  to  be  signed,  on  his 
back,  with  the  sign  of  the  cross,  l)y  that  hand  ;  when,  feeling  a 
particular  sensation  and  total  change  in  himself,  as  he  expressed 
it,  he  exclaimed  to  his  wife,  Mary,  I  can  walk;  this  he  did  with- 
out any  help  whatever,  walking  first  into  an  adjoining  room  and 
thence  to  the  cart  which  conveyed  him  home.  With  his  debili- 
ty, his  pains  also  left  him,  and  his  hack  has  continued  well  ever 
since.*  These  particulars,  as  they  were  respectively  witnesses 
of  them,  the  above  named  persons,  all  now  living,  arc  ready  to 
declare  upon  oath.  I  have  attestations  of  incurable  cancers  and 
other  disorders  being  suddenly  remedied  by  the  same  instrument 
of  God's  bounty ;  but  it  would  be  a  tedious  worV  to  transcribe 
them,  or  the  other  attestations  in  my  possession  of  a  similar  na- 
ture. 

Among  those  of  my  personal  acquaintance  who  have  experi- 
enced supernatural  cures,  I  v/ill  mention  MarA'  Wood,  now  liv- 
ing at  Taunton  Lodge,  where  several  other  witnesses  of  the 
facts  I  am  going  to  state  live  widi  her-  "  On  March  15,  1809, 
Mary  Wood,  in  attempting  to  open  a  sash  window,  pushed  her 
left  hand  through  a  pane  of  ^lass,  which  caused  a  very  large 
and  deep  transverse  wound  in  the  inside  of  the  left  arm,  and  di- 
vided the  muscles  and  nearly  the  whole  of  the  tendons  that  lead 
to  the  hand;  from  wiiich  accident,  she  not  only  suffered,  at 
times,  the  most  acut<i  pain,  but  was  from  the  period  I  first  saw 
her  (March  15)  t/il  some  time  in  July,  totally  deprived  of  the 
use  of  her  h^md  and  arm."f  What  passed  between  the  latter 
end  of  July,  ^vhen,  as  the  surgeon  elsewhere  says,  "  he  left  his 
patient,"  having  no  hopes  of  restoring  her,  till  the  Cth  of  Au- 
gust, on  the  night  of  which  she  was  perfectly  and  miraculously 
cured,  I  shall  copy  from  a  letter  to  me,  dated  Nov.  19,  1809, 
by  her  amanuensis.  Miss  Maria  Hornyold.  ''The  surgeon 
gave  Httle  or  no  hopes  of  her  ever  again  having  the  use  of  her 
hand,  which,  together  with  the  arm,  seemed  withered  and  some- 
what contracted ;  only  saying,  in  some  years,  nature  might  give 

•  The  Rev.  Mr.  Sadler's  letter  to  me  is  dated  Aug.  6,  1817. 

t  This  account  is  copied  from  a  letter  to  Miss  F.  T.  Bird,  dated  Sept.  30, 
1809,  by  Mr.  Woodford,  an  eminent  surgeon  of  Taunton,  who  attended  Mary 
Wood. 


144  Letter  XXIIL 

her  some  little  use  of  it,  which  was  considered  by  her  superiors  as 
a  mere  delusive  comfort.  Despairing  of  further  human  assistance 
towards  her  cure,  she  determined,  with  the  approbation  of  her 
said  superiors,  to  have  recourse  to  God,  through  the  intercession 
of  St.  VVinefrid,  by  a  Novcna.*  Accordingly  on  the  6th  of 
August  she  put  a  piece  of  moss,  from  the  saint's  well,  on  her 
arm,  continuing  recollected  and  praying,  &;c. ;  when,  to  her 
great  surprise,  the  next  morning  she  found  she  could  dress  her- 
self, put  her  arm  behind  her  and  to  her  head,  having  regained 
the  free  use  and  full  strength  of  it.  In  short,  she  was  perfectly 
cured  !"  In  this  state  I  myself  saw  her  and  examined  her  hand, 
a  few  years  afterwards,  and  in  the  same  state  she  still  continues, 
at  the  above  named  place,  with  many  other  highly  credible 
vouchers  who  are  ready  respectively  to  attest  these  particulars. 
"On  the  IGth  of  the  month,  the  surgeon  was  sent  for;  and, 
being  asked  his  opinion  concerning  Mary  Wood's  arm,  he  gave 
no  hope  of  a  perfect  cure,  and  very  little  of  her  ever  having  even 
the  least  use  of  it ;  when  she  being  introduced  to  him  and  show- 
ing him  the  arm,  which  he  thoroughly  examined  and  tried,  he 
was  so  aflected  at  the  sight  and  the  recital  of  the  manner  of  the 
cure,  as  to  shed  tears,  and  exclaim,  it  was  a  special  interposition 
of  Divine  Providence." 

I  shall  say  little  of  the  miraculous  cure  of  Winefrid  White,  a 
young  woman  of  W\)lvcrhampton,  on  the  28th  of  June,  1805, 
at  Holywell,  having  published  a  detailed  account  yf  it,  soon 
after  it  happened,  w  liich  work  h^s  been  republished  in  England 
and  in  Ireland. f  Let  it  suffice  to  say ;  1st,  that  the  disease 
was  one  of  the  most  alarming  topical  ones  which  are  known, 
namely,  a  curvature  of  the  spine,  as  her  physician  and  surgeon 
ascertained,  who  treated  it  accordingly,  )iy  making  two  great 
issues,  one  on  each  side  of  the  spine,  of  which  the  patient's  back 
still  bears  the  marks ;  2dly,  that,  besides  the  nx)st  acute  pains, 
throughout  the  whole  nervous  system,  and  particularly  in  the 
brain,  this  disease  of  the  spine  produced  a  hemiplegia  or  palsy 
on  one  side  of  the  patient,  so  that  when  she  could  feebly  crawl, 
with  the  help  of  a  crutch  under  her  right  arm,  she  was  forced 
to  drag  her  left  leg  and  arm  after  her,  just  as  if  they  made  no 
part  of  her ;  3dly,  that  her  disorder  was  of  long  continuance, 
namely,  of  three  years  standing ;  though  not  in  t\%  same  de- 
gree, till  the   latter  part  of  that  time,  and  that  it  was  publicly 


•  Certain  prnyen?  rr^ntinuf?r3  during;  nine  dnyn, 

t  By  Ceatin^  auJl  IJro'wn,  Duke-street,  Groovenor-square,  London;  Cojrnt, 
Dublin. 


Letter  XXIV.  145 

known  to  all  her  neiglibours  and  a  great  many  others ;  4ihly 
that  having  performed  the  acts  of  devotion  wliich  she  feU  Ijer- 
self  called  to  undertake,  and  having  bathed  in  the  fountain,  she 
in  one  instant  of  time,  on  the  28th  of  June,  1805,  found  herself 
freed  from  all  her  pains  and  disabilities,  so  as  to  be  able  to 
walk,  run  and  jump,  like  any  other  young  person,  and  to  carry 
a  greater  weight  with  the  left  arm  than  she  could  with  the  right  5 
5thly,  that  she  has  continued  in  this  state  these  twelve  years 
down  to  the  present  time ;  lastly,  that  all  the  above-mentioned 
circumstances  have  been  ascertained  by  me  in  the  regular  ex- 
amination of  the  several  witnesses  of  them  ;  being  persons  of 
diflerent  religions,  situations  in  life  and  countries,  in  the  places 
of  their  respective  residence,  namely,  in  Staffordshire,  Lanca- 
shire, and  Wales,  the  authentic  documents  of  which  are  contain- 
ed in  the  work  referred  to  above.  Several  of  the  witnesses  ar« 
still  living,  as  is  Winefrid  White  herself. 

I  am,  &z;c, 

J.  M. 


LETTER  XXIV 
To  JAMES  BROWN,  Esq.  fyc. 

OBJECTIOJ\'S   A^'SWERED. 

Dear  Sir, 
I  SUBSCRIBE  to  the  objection,  which  you  say  has  been  sug- 
gested to  you  by  your  learned  friend,  on  the  subject  of  miracles. 
Namely,  I  admit  that  a  vast  number  of  incredible  and  false 
miracles,  as  well  as  other  fables,  have  been  forged  by  some, 
and  believed  by  other  Catholics  in  every  age  of  the  church,  in- 
cludhig  that  of  the  apostles.*  I  agree  with  him  and  you  in  re- 
jecting the  Legenda  Aurea  of  Jacobus  de  Voragine,  the  Specu- 
lum of  Vincentius  Belluacensis,the»Sa2n^5'  Lives  of  the  Patrician, 
Metaphrastes,  and  scores  of  similar  legends,  stufled  as  they  are, 
with  relations  of  miracles  of  every  description.  But,  sir,  are 
we  to  deny  the  truth  of  all  history,  because  there  are  number- 

♦  St.  Jerom,  in  rejecting;  certain  current  fables  concernine;  St.  Paul  and  St. 
Thecla,  mentions  a  priest  who  was  deposed  by  St.  John  the  Evangelist,  for  in- 
venting similar  stories.  De  Script.  Apo^st. — Pope  Gclasius,  in  the  5th  century, 
condemned  several  Apochryphal  Gospels  and  Epistles,  and  legends  of  aainta,  and 
iimoi)^  the  latter  the  common  ones  of  St.  George. 

T 


t46  Letter  XXIV, 

less  false  histories  ?  Are  we  to  question  the  four  evangelists, 
because  tlicre  have  been  several  fabricated  Gospels  ?  Most  cer- 
tainly not :  but  we  must  make  the  best  use  we  can  of  the  dis- 
cernment and  judurment  which  God  has  given  us,  to  distinguish 
false  accounts  of  every  kind  from  those  which  are  true ;  and  we 
ought,  I  allow,  to  make  use  of  double  diligence  and  caution,  in 
examiniui:;  alleged  revelations  and  events  contrary  to  the  gene- 
ral laws  of  nature. 

Your  friend's  second  objection,  which  impeaches  the  dili- 
gence, integrity  and  discernment  of  the  cardinals,  prelates,  and 
other  ecclesiastics  at  Rome,  appointed  to  examine  into  the 
proofs  of  the  miracles  there  published,  shows  that  he  is  little 
acquainted  with  the  subject  he  talks  of.  In  the  first  place,  then, 
a  juridical  examination  of  each  reported  miracle  must  be  made 
in  the  place  where  it  is  said  to  have  happened,  and  the  deposi- 
tions of  the  several  witnesses  must  be  given  upon  oath  ;  this  ex- 
amination is  generally  repeated  two  or  three  different  times  at 
intervals.  In  the  next  place,  the  examiners  at  Rome  are  un- 
questionabl\  men  of  character,  talents  and  learning,  who,  never- 
theless, arc  not  permitted  to  pronounce  upon  any  cure  or  other 
effect  in  nature,  till  they  have  received  a  regular  report  of  phy- 
sicians and  naturalists  upon  it.  So  far  from  being  precipitate, 
it  employs  them  whole  ^ears  to  come  to  a  decision,  on  a  few 
cases,  respecting  each  saint ;  this  is  printed  and  handed  about 
among  indifferent  persons,  previously  to  its  being  laid  before 
the  Pope.  In  short,  so  strict  is  the  examination,  that,  according 
to  an  Italian  proverb  :  It  is  next  to  a  miracle  to  get  a  miracle 
proved  at  Rome.  It  is  reported  by  F.  Daubenton  that  an  En- 
glish Protestant  gentleman,  meeting,  in  that  city,  with  a  printed 
process  of  forty  miracles,  which  had  been  laid  before  the  Con- 
gregation of  Rites,  to  which  the  examination  of  them  belonged, 
was  so  well  satisfied  with  the  respective  proofs  of  them,  as  to 
express  a  wish  that  Rome  would  never  allow  of  any  miracles, 
but  such  as  were  as  strongly  proved,  as  these  appeared  to  be  ; 
when  to  his  great  surprise,  he  was  informed  that  every  one  of 
these  had  been  rejected  by  Rome  as  not  sufficiently  proved ! 

Nor  can  I  admit  of  the  third  objection  of  your  friend,  by 
which  he  rejects  our  miracles,  on  tlie  alleged  ground,  that  there 
was  no  sufficient  cause  for  the  performance  of  them  ;^ for  not  to 
mention  that  many  of  them  were  performed  for  the  conversion 
of  infidels,  1  am  bound  to  cry  out  with  the  apostle:  Who  hath 
known  the  mind  of  the  Lord,  or  who  hath  been  his  counsellor  t 
Rom.  xi.  34.  Thus  much  is  certain  from  Scripture,  that  the 
fame  Deity  who  preservt^d  Jonas  in  the  whale's  belly,  to  preach 


Letter  XXIV,  I47 

repentance  to  the  Ninivites,  created  a  gourd  to  shelter  his  head 
from  the  heat  of  the  sun,  Jonas  iv.  6,  and  that  as  he  sent  fir% 
from  heaven  to  save  his  prophet  Elias,  so  he  caused  iron  to 
swim,  in  order  to  enable  the  son  of  a  prophet  to  restore  the  axe 
which  he  had  borrowed,  2  Kings  vi.  6.  In  like  manner,  we  are 
not  to  reject  miracles,  sufficiently  proved,  under  pretext  that 
they  are  mean,  and  unworthy  the  hand  of  Omnipotence  ;  for  we 
are  assured,  that  God  equally  turned  the  dust  of  Egypt  into 
lice,  as  he  turned  the  waters  of  it  into  blood,  Exod.  viii. 

Having  lately  perused  the  works  of  several  of  the  most  cele- 
brated Protestant  writers,  who,  in  defending  the  Scripture  mira- 
cles, endeavour  to  invalidate  the  credit  of  those  they  are  pleased 
to  call  Popish  miracles,  I  think  it  just,  both  to  your  cause  and 
my  own,  to  state  the  chief  arguments  they  make  use  of,  and  the 
answers  which  occur  to  me,  in  refutation  of  them.  On  this 
head,  I  cannot  help  expressing  my  surprise  and  concern  that 
writers  of  character,  and  some  of  them  of  high  dignity,  should 
have  published  several  gross  falsehoods  ;  not,  1  trust,  intention- 
ally, but  from  the  blind  precipitanc}'  and  infatuation  which  a 
panic  fear  of  Popery  generally  produces.  The  late  learned  bi- 
shop of  Salisbury,  Dr.  J.  Douglas,  has  borrowed  from  the  infi- 
del Gibbon  what  he  calls  "  A  most  satisfying  proof  that  the  mi- 
racles ascribed  to  the  Romish  saints  are  forgeries  of  an  age 
posterior  to  that  they  lay  claim  to."*  The  latter  says  :  "  It 
may  seem  remarkable,  that  Bernard  of  Clairvaux,  who  records 
so  many  miracles  of  his  friend  St.  Malachy,  never  takes  notice  of 
his  own,  which  in  their  turn,  however,  are  carefully  related  by 
his  companions  and  disciples.  In  the  long  series  of  ecclesiasti- 
cal history,  does  there  occur  a  single  instance  of  a  saint  assert- 
ing that  he  himself  possessed  the  gift  of  miracles  ?"f  Adopting 
this  objection,  the  bishop  of  Salisbury  says  :  "  I  think  I  may 
safely  challenge  the  admirers  of  the  Romish  saints  to  produce 
any  writing  of  any  of  them,  in  which  a  power  of  working  mira- 
cles is  claimed."!  Elsewhere  he  says  :  "  From  Xavier  himself 
(namely,  from  his  published  letters)  we  are  furnished,  not  only 
with  a  negative  evidence  against  his  having  any  miraculous 
power,  but  also  with  a  positive  fact,  which  is  the  strongest  possi- 
ble presumption  against  it,"^  Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  the  con- 
fident assertions  of  these  celebrated  authors,  it  is  certain  (though 

•  The  Criterion,  or  Rules  by  which  the  true  Miracles  of  the  New  Testament 
are  distinguished  from  the  spurious  Miracles  of  Pagans  and  Papists,  by  John 
Douglas,  D.  D.  lord  bishop  of  Salisbury,  p.  71,  note. 

t  Hist,  of  Decline  and  Fall,  chap,  xv. 

I  Criterion,  p.  369.  ♦  Ibid,  p,  76, 


148  Letter  XXIV. 

tlie  last  thing  which  true  saints  choose  to  speak  of  are  their  own 
supernatural  favours)  that  several  of  them,  when  the  occasion 
required  it,  have  spoken  of  the  miracles,  of  which  they  were  the 
instruments  ;*  and  among  the  rest,  those  two  identical  saints, 
St.  Bernard  and  St.  Francis  Xavier,  whom  Gibbon  and  Dr. 
Douglas  instance,  to  prove  their  assertion.  I  have  already  re- 
ferred to  the  passages  in  the  works  of  St.  Bernard,  where  he 
speaks  of  his  miracles  as  of  notorious  facts ;  and  I  here  again 
insert  them  in  a  note.f  With  respect  to  St.  Xavier,  he  not  only 
mentions,  in  those  very  letters  which  Dr.  Douglas  appeals  to,  a 
miraculous  cure,  which  he  wrought  upon  a  dying  woman  in  the 
kingdom  of  Travancor ;  but  he  expressly  calls  it  A  Miracle, 
and  affirms  that  it  caused  the  conversion  of  the  whole  village  in 
which  she  resided.  J 

A  second  palpable  falsehood  is  thus  confidently  advanced  by 
the  capital  enemy  of  miracles.  Dr.  Middleton ;  "  I  might  risk 
the  merit  of  my  argument  upon  this  single  point,  that,  after  the 
apostolic  times,  there  is  not,  in  all  history,  one  instance,  either 
well  attested,  or  even  so  much  as  mentioned,  of  any  particular 
person  who  had  ever  exercised  that  gift  (of  tongues)  or  pre- 
tended to  exercise  it,  in  any  age  or  country  whatsoever."^  In 
case  your  learned  friend  is  disposed  to  take  up  the  cause  of 
Middleton,  I  beg  to  refer  him  to  the  history  of  St.  Pacomius, 
the  Egyptian  abbot,  and  founder  of  the  Cenobites,  who, 
"  though  he  never  learned  the  Greek  or  Latin  languages,  yet 
sometimes  miraculously  spoke  them,"  as  his  disciple  and  bio- 
grapher reports,  II  and  to  that  of  the  renowned  preacher,  St. 
Vincent  Ferrer,  who,  having  the  gift  of  tongues,  preached  indif- 
ferently to  Jews,  Moors,  and  Christians,  in  their  respective  lan- 
guages, and  converted  incredible  numbers  of  each  of  these  des- 


•  The  great  St.  Martin  acknowledged  his  own  miracles,  since,  according  to 
his  friend  and  biographer,  Sulpicius,  Dialogue  2,  he  used  to  say,  that  he  was  not 
endowed  with  so  great  a  power  of  working  them,  after  he  was  a  bishop,  as  he 
had  been  before. 

t  Addressing  himself  to  P.  Eugenius  III.  in  answer  to  his  enemies,  who  re- 
proached him  with  the  ill  success  of  the  second  crusade,  he  says,  "  Sed  dicunt  for- 
sitan  isti :  Uade  scimus  quod  a  Domino  strmo  egressus  sit  ?  Q?/re  si^na  tu/acisui 
credamus  tibi?  non  egt  quod  ad  ista  ipse  respondeani :  parcendum  verecundia 
meae  :  responde  tu  pro  me  et  pro  te  ipso,  secundum  ea  quae  vidi^ti  et  audisti." 
De  Consid.  1.  ii.  c.  1.  In  like  manner,  writing  to  the  people  of  Thoulouse,  of  hig 
miracles  wrought  there,  he  says  :  "  Mora  quidem  brevis  apud  vos  sed  non  in- 
fructuosa:  veritate  nimirum  per  nos  manifestata,  non  solum  in  sermone  sedeti- 
am  in  virtuta.'"    Ep.  24 1 . 

X  Epist.  8.  F.  X:iv.  L.  1.  Ep.  iv. 

(  Inquiry  into  Mirac.  Powers,  ji.  120,  &o, 

I  Tillemont,  Mem.  Ecc.  lorn.  vii. 


Letter  XXIV.  14t) 

criptions."'^  In  like  manner,  the  bull  of  the  canonization  of  St. 
Lewis  Bertrand,  A.  D.  1671,  declares  that  he  possessed  the  gift 
of  tongues,  by  means  of  which  he  converted  as  many  as  ten  thou- 
sand Indians  of  difterent  tribes  in  South  America,  in  tlie  space  of 
three  years. f  Lastly,  let  your  friend  peruse  the  history  of  the 
great  apostle  of  the  East  Indies,  St.  Xavier,  who,  though  he 
ordinarily  studied  the  languages  of  the  several  nations  he  an- 
nounced the  word  of  God  to,  yet,  on  particular  occasions,  he 
was  empowered  to  speak  those  he  had  not  learned. {  This  was 
the  case  in  Travancor,  as  his  companion  Vaz  testified,  so  as  to 
be  enabled  to  convert  and  instruct  there  ten  thousand  infidels, 
all  of  whom  he  baptized  with  his  own  hand.  This  was  the  case 
again  at  Amanguchi,  where  he  met  with  a  number  of  Chinese 
merchants.  Finally,  the  bull  of  St.  Xavierius's  canonization 
by  Urban  VIII.  proclaims  to  the  world,  that  this  saint  was  il- 
lustrated with  the  gift  of  tongues:  so  false  is  the  bold  assertion 
of  Middleton,  adopted  in  part  by  bishop  Douglas  and  other 
Protestants,  that  "  there  is  not,  in  all  history,  one  instance, 
either  well  attested,  or  so  much  as  mentioned,  of  any  person 
who  had  e/er  exercised  the  gift  of  tongues,  or  pretended  to  ex- 
ercise it." 

Nor  is  there  more  truth  in  what  the  bishop  of  Salisbury,  Dr. 
Paley,  &£c.  maintain,  namely,  that  "  the  Popish  miracles,"  as 
they  insultingly  call  them,  were  not  wrought  to  confirm  any 
trutli,  and  that  no  converts  were  made  by  them  !^  In  refutation 
of  this,  I  may  again  refer  to  the  epitaph  of  our  apostle,  St.  Au- 
gustin,  and  to  the  miracles  of  St.  Bernard  at  Sarlat,  mentioned 
above.  To  these  instances,  I  may  add  the  prodigy  of  St.  Do- 
minic, who,  to  prove  the  truth  of  the  Catholic  doctrine,  threw 
a  book  containing  it  into  the  flames,  in  which  it  remained  un- 
consumed,  at  the  same  time  challenging  the  heretics,  whom  he 
was  addressing,  to  make  the  same  experiment  on  their  creed.  || 
In  like  manner,  St.  Xavier,  on  a  certain  occasion,  finding  his 
words  to  have  no  effect  on  his  Indian  auditory,  requested  them 
to  open  the  grave  of  a  corpse  that  had  been  buried  the  day  be- 
fore, when  falling  on  his  knees,  he  besought  God  to  restore  it  to 
life  for  the  conversion  of  the  infidels  present  j  upon  which,  the 

•  See  his  Life  by  Lanzano,  Bishop  of  Lucca,  also  Spondanus  ad  An.  1403, 

t  See  Alban  Butler's  Saints'  Lives,  Oct.  9. 

X  See  Bouhour's  Life  of  St.  Xavier,  translated  by  Dryden,  Lc. 

\  Criterion,  p.  369.     View  of  Evidences,  by  Dr.  Paley,  vol.  i.  p.  346. 

Q  Petrus  Vallis  Cern.  Hist.    Alb.  Butler's  Saint's  Lives,  Aug.  4. 


150  Letter  XXIV. 

dead  man  was  instantly  restored  to  life  and  perfect  health,  and 
the  comitry  round  about  received  the  faith. ■'^ 

It  is  chiefly  through  the  sides  of  the  apostle  of  India,  that  the 
author  of  The  Criterion  endeavours  to  wound  the  credit  of  the 
other  saints  and  tlie  Catliolic  cliurch,  on  the  point  of  miracles. 
Hence  in  the  application  of  his  three  laboured  rules  of  criticism, 
he  objects,  that  the  alleged  miracles  of  St.  Xavier  were  per- 
formed in  the  extremities  of  the  East ;  that  the  accounts  of  them 
were  published,  not  on  the  spot,  but  in  Europe,  at  an  immense 
distance;  and  this  not  till  thirty-five  years  after  the  saint's 
death. f  A  single  document,  of  the  most  public  nature,  at  once 
overturns  all  the  three  rules  in  regard  of  this  saint.  He  died  at 
the  end  of  1552,  and  on  the  28th  of  March,  1556,  a  letter  was 
sent  from  Lisbon  by  John  III.  king  of  Portugal,  to  his  viceroy 
in  India,  Don  Francisco  Barretto,  "  enjoining  him  to  take  de- 
positions upon  oath,  in  all  parts  of  the  Indies,  where  there  is  a 
probability  of  finding  witnesses,  not  only  concerning  the  life  and 
manners  of  Francis  Xavier,  and  of  all  the  things  commendably 
done  by  him,  for  the  salvation  and  example  of  men,  but  also 
concerning  the  miracles^  which  he  has  wrought,  both  living  and 
dead.  You  shall  send  these  authentic  instruments,  with  all  the 
evidences  and  proofs,  signed  with  your  handwriting,  and  sealed 
with  your  ring,  by  three  different  conveyances. "J  ^ 

But  the  author  of  The  Criterion,  it  seems,  has  more  positive, 
and  what  he  calls  "  conclusive  evidence,  that  during  this  time, 
(thirty-five  years  from  his  death,)  Xavier's  miracles  had  not  been 
heard  of.  The  evidence,"  he  says,  *'  I  shall  allege,  is  that  of 
Acosta,  (namely,  Joseph  Acosta,)  who  himself  had  been  a  mis- 
sionary among  the  Indians.  His  work,  De  Procuranda  Indo- 
rum  Salute,  was  printed  in  1589,  that  is,  above  thirty-seven 
years  after  the  death  of  Xavier,  and  in  it  we  find  an  express  ac- 
knowledgment, that  no  miracles  had  ever  been  performed  by 
missionaries  among  the  Indians.  Acosta  was  himself  a  Jesuit, 
and  therefore,  from  his  silence,  we  may  infer  unexceptionably, 
that  between  thirty  and  forty  years  had  elapsed  before  Xavier's 


•  This  was  one  of  the  miracles  referred  to  by  the  Paravas  of  Cape  Comonn, 
when  the  Dutch  sent  a  minister  from  Batavia,  to  proselyte  them  to  Protestant- 
ism. On  this  occasion,  they  answered  the  minister's  discourse  thus  :  The  great 
father  (St.  Xavier)  raised  to  life  Jive  or  six  dead  persons;  do  you  raise  twice  as 
many ;  do  you  cure  all  our  sick,  and  make  the  sea  twice  as  productive  offish  as  it 
now  is,  and  then  we  uill  listen  to  you.  Du  Halde's  Recueil,  vol.  v.  BeraulC 
Bercastel's  Hist.  Ecc.  torn,  xxiii.  p.'454.  t  Criter.  p.  78,  01,  &c. 

X  This  letter  is  extant  in  Tursellinus,  but  had  been  published  several  ye&rj 
before  by  Emanuel  Acosta,  in  his  Rerum  in  Oriente  Gestarum.  Dilingen,  1571. 
Parii,  1572. 


Utter  XXIV.  151 

miracles  were  thought  of."*  The  argument  has  been  thought 
so  conclusive,  that  Mr.  Le  Mesurier,f  Hugh  Farmer,  J  the  Rev. 
Peter  Roberts,*^  and  other  Protestant  writers  on  miracles,  have 
adopted  it  with  exultation,  and  it  has  probably  contributed  as 
much  to  the  author's  title  of  Detector  Douglas,  as  his  exposure 
of  the  two  impostors,  Lauder  and  Archibald  Bower.  But  what 
will  the  admirers  of  this  Detector  say,  if  it  should  appear  th^t 
Acosta  barely  says,  that  "  there  was  not  the  same  faculty  or  fa- 
cility of  working  miracles  among  the  missionaries,  which  there 
was  among  the  apostles  ?"||  Or  rather,  what  will  they  say,  il 
this  same  Acosta,  in  the  very  work  which  Doctor  Douglas*  '^ 
quotes,  expressly  asserts,  that  signs  and  miracles  too  numerous 
to  be  related,  accompanied  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  both  in 
the  East  and  the  West  Indies,  in  his  own  time  .'IT  And  yet  fur- 
ther, with  respect  to  this  same  "  Blessed  Master  Francis,"  as  he 
calls  him,  "  being  a  man  of  an  apostolical  life,  that  so  many 
and  such  great  signs  have  been  reported  of  him  by  numerous 
and  credible  witnesses,  that  hardly  more  in  number  or  greater 
in  magnitude  are  read  of  any  one,  except  the  apostles  ?"**  Now 
all  this  I  affirm  Acosta  does  say,  in  the  very  work  quoted  by 
bishop  Douglas,  a  copy  of  which  I  beg  leave  to  inform  your 
learned  friend,  (and  through  him,  other  learned  men,)  is  to  be 
found  in  the  Bodleian  library  at  Oxford,  under  the  title  which 
I  insert  below.f  f  The  author  of  The  Criterion  is  hardly  en~ 
titled  to  more  mercy  for  his  cavils  on  what  Ribadeneira  says  of 
the  miracles  of  St.  Ignatius,  than  for  those  on  what  Acosta  says 
of  the  miracles  of  St.  Xavier.  The  fact  is,  the  Council  of 
Trent,  having  recently  prohibited  the  publication  of  any  new  mi- 
racles, until  they  had  been  examined  and  approved  of  by  the 
proper  ecclesiastical  authority,  Ribadeneira,  in  the  first  edi- 
tion of  his  life  of  St.  Ignatius,  observed  due  caution  in  speak- 
ing of  this  saint's  miracles ;  however,  in  that  very  edition,  he 

*  Gri^'°rion,  p.  73.  t  Bampton  Lecture?,  p.  238. 

^  Dissertation  on  Miracles,  p.  205.        5  Observations  on  a  Pamphlet.  

II  "  Altera  causa  in  nobis  est  cur  apostolica  praedicatio  institui  omnino  non 
possit  apostolice,  quod  miraculorum  nulla/acu/ftzs  sit,  quae  apostoli  plurima  per- 
petrarunt." — Acosta,  DeProc.  1.  ii.  c.  8. 

IT  "  Et  quidem  dona  Spiritus  signa  et  miracida,  quae  fidei  praedicatione  innotuer- 
unt,  his  etiam  (emporibus,qvi2indo  cbaritas  usque  adeo  refrixit,  ennumerarelongum 
esset,  turn  in  Orientali  i)la  India,  turn  in  hac  Occidentali." — De  Procur.  1.  i.  c 
6,  p.  141. 

**  Convertamus  oculos  in  nostri  saeculi  hominem,  B.  Magistrum  Franciscum, 
virum  Apostolicae  vitae,  cujus  tot  et  tarn  magna  signa  referuntur  per  plurimoe, 
«osque  idoneop,  testes  ut  vix  de  alio  exceptis  Apostolis,  plura  legantur.  Quid 
Magister  Caspar  aliique  socii,  &c." — De  Procur.  Ind.  Salut.  1.  ii.  c.  10,  p.  226. 

tt  The  book  is  to  be  inquired  for  at  the  Bodleian  library  by  the  following 
quaint  description ;  Johanna  Papissa  loti  Orbi  manifeslata.  8"*  c.  29.  w?r/.  Seld, 


159  Letter  XXIK 

declared  that  many  such  had  been  wrought  by  him  :  but  the^ 
havmg  subsequently  been  juridically  proved  in  the  process  of 
the  saint's  canonization,  his  biographer  published  them  without 
scruple,  as  he  candidly  and  satisfactorily  informs  his  readers  in 
that  third  edition  ;  which  edition  now  stands  in  his  folio  work  oi 
The  Saints^  Lives.* 

I  shall  close  this  very  long  letter,  with  a  very  few  words  re*- 
pecting  a  work  which  has  lately  appeared,  animadverting  on 
my  account  of  The  Miraculous  Cure  of  Winefrid  JVhite.f  The 
writer  sets  out  with  the  system  of  Dr.  Middleton,  by  admitting  . 
none  except  Scripture  miracles ;  but  very  soon  he  miderminei  \ 
these  miracles  also,  where  he  says :  "  An  independent  and  ex- 
press divine  testimony  is  that  alone,  which  can  assure  us  whe^ 
ther  effects  are  miraculous  or  not,  except  in  a  few  cases."  He 
thus  reverses  the  proofs  of  Christianity,  as  its  advocates  and  its 
divine  Founder  himself  have  laid  them  down.  He  adds  :  "  No 
mortal  ought  to  have  the  presumption  to  say,  a  tiling  is  or  is' 
not  contrary  to  the  established  laws  of  nature."  Again  he  says: 
"  To  prove  a  miracle,  there  must  be  a  proof  of  the  particular 
divine  agency."  According  to  this  system  we  may  say,  No 
one  knows  but  the  motion  of  the  funeral  procession,  or  some 
occult  quality  of  nature,  raised  to  life  the  widow  of  Naim's  son  i 
Mr.  Roberts  will  have  no  difficulty  in  saying  so,  as  he  denies 
that  the  resurrection  of  the  murdered  man  from  the  touch  of  the 
prophet  Elisha's  bones,  2  Kings  xiii,  was  a  miracle  !  Possessed 
of  this  opinion,  the  author  can  readily  persuade  himself,  that  a 
curvated  spine  and  hemiplegia,  or  any  other  disease  whatever, 
may  be  cured,  in  an  instant,  by  immersion  in  cold  water,  or  by 
any  thing  else ;  but  as  it  is  not  likely  that  any  one  else  will 
adopt  it,  I  will  say  no  more  of  his  physical  arguments  on  thit 

♦  *'  Mihi  tantum  abest  ut  ad  vitam  Tgnatii  illustranclam  miracula  deesse  vi- 
deantur,  ut  multa  caque  pnestantissima  judicem  in  media  luce  versari."     The 

writer  proceeds  to  mention  several  cure.<.  Sec.  edit.  1572. 1  cannot  close  thi« 

article  without  protesting  ajcain?t  tlie  disiiigenuity  of  several  Protestant  writer* 
in  reproaching  Catholics  with  the  impositions  practised  by  the  Jansenists  at  th« 
tomb  of  Abbe  Paris.  In  fact,  who  detected  those  impositions,  and  furnished  Dr. 
Campbel,  Ur.  Douglas,  &:c.  with  arguments  against  them,  except  our  Catholia 
prelates  and  theologians  ?  [n  like  manner  Catholics  have  reason  to  complaio 
of  these  and  other  Trotestant  writers,  for  the  manner  in  which  they  discuss  the 
stupendous  miracle  that  took  place  at  Saragossa  in  1640,  on  one  Michael  Fellicer, 
-whose  leg,  having  been  amputated,  he,  by  his  prayers,  obtained  a  few,  natural 
leg,  just  as  if  this  miracle  rested  on  no  better  foundation  than  the  slight  mention 
■which  cardinal  Retz  makes  of  it  in  his  Memoirs.  In  fact,  we  might  have  expect- 
ed that  learned  divines  would  have  known  that  this  mirac-le  had  been  amply 
discussed,  soon  after  it  happened,  between  Dr.  Stillingfleet  and  the  Jesuit  Ed- 
ward Worsley,  in  which  discussion,  the  latter  produced  such  attestations  of  tL» 
fact  as  it  seems  impossible  not  to  credit. — See  Reason  and  Religioo,  p.  328. 

t  By  the  Rev.  Peter  Roberts,  rector  of  Llanarnion,  &c. 


Letter  XXV.  158 

fobject.     He  next  proceeds  to  charge  W.  Wliite  and  her  friends 
with  a  studied  imposition;  in  support  of  which  charge,  he  as- 
serts, that  "  the  church  of  Rome  had  not  announced  a  miracle 
for  many  years."     This  only  proves  that  his  ignorance  of  what 
is  continually  going  on  in  the  church,  is  equal  to  his  bigotry 
against  it.     The  same  ignorance  and  bigotry  are  manifested  in 
the  ridiculous  story  concerning  Sixtus  V.  which  he  copies  from 
the  unprincipled  Leti,  as  also  in  his  account  of  the  exploded  and 
condemned  book,  the  Taxce,  CanceUarice,^  he*     Towards  the 
conclusion  of  his  work,  he  expresses  a  doubt  whether  I  have 
read  bishop  Douglas's  Criterion,  though  I  have  so  frequently 
quoted  it ;  because,  he  says,  if  I  had  read  it,  I  must  have  known 
that  Acosta  proves  that  St.  Xavier  wrought  no  miracles  among 
the  Indians,  and  that  the  same  thing  appears  from  the  saint's 
own  letters.     Now  the  only  thing,  dear  sir,  which  these  asser- 
tions prove,  is,  that  Mr.  Roberts  himself,  no  more  than  bishop 
Douglas,  ever  read  either  Acosta's  work,  or  St.  Xavier's  Let- 
ters, notwithstanding  they  so  frequently  refer  to  them  ;  for  this 
U  the  only  way  of  acquitting  them  of  a  far  heavier  charge. 

I  am,  &;c. 

J.  M. 


LETTER  XXV. 

To  JAMES  BROWJV,  Esq,  Src. 
O^*  THE  TRUE  CHURCH  BEING  CATHOLIC. 

Dear  Sir, 
In  treating  of  this  third  mark  of  the  true  church,  as  expressed 
in  our  conrmon  creed,  I  feel  my  spirits  sink  within  me,  and  I 
am  almost  tempted  to  throw  away  my  pen,  in  despair.  For 
what  chance  is  there  of  opening  the  eyes  of  candid  Protestants 
to  the  other  marks  of  the  church,  if  they  are  capable  of  keeping 
them  shut  to  this  ?  Every  time  that  each  of  them  addresses  the 
God  of  Truth,  either  in  solemn  worship  or  in  private  devotion, 
he  fails  not  to  repeat,  /  believe  in  THE  CATHOLIC  church  : 
and  yet  if  I  ask  him  the  question.  Are  you  a  CATHOLIC  9 
be  is  sure  to  answer  me,  JVo,  lam  a  PROTESTANT  I   Wa 

•  Euseb.  £ccle«.  Hist.  1.  ir.  c.  IS. 

u 


154  Letter  XXV. 

there  ever  a  more  glaring  instance  of  inconsistency  and  self-con- 
demnation among  rational  beings ! 

At  the  first  promulgation  of  the  Gospel,  its  followers  were 
distinguished  from  the  Jews  by  the  name  of  Christians^  as  we 
learn  from  Scripture,  Acts  xi.  26.  Hence  the  title  of  Catholic 
did  not  occur  in  the  primitive  edition  of  the  apostles'  Creed  ;* 
but  no  sooner  did  heresies  and  schisms  arise,  to  disturb  the 
peace  of  the  church,  than  there  was  found  to  be  a  necessity  of 
discriminating  the  main  stock  of  her  faithful  children,  to  whom 
the  promises  of  Christ  belonged,  from  those  self-will  choosers  of 
their  articles  of  belief,  as  the  word  heretic  signifies,  and  those 
disobedient  separatists,  as  the  word  schismatic  means.  For  this 
purpose  the  title  of  CATHOLIC,  or  universal,  was  adopted, 
and  applied  to  the  true  church  and  her  children.  Accordingly 
we  find  it  used  by  the  immediate  disciples  of  the  apostles,  as  a 
distinguishing  mark  of  the  true  church.  One  of  these  was  the 
illustrious  martyr  St.  Ignatius,  bishop  of  Antioch,  who,  writing 
to  the  church  of  Smyrna,  expressly  says,  that  "  Christ  is  where 
the  Catholic  church  is."  In  like  manner,  the  same  church  of 
Smyrna,  giving  a  relation  of  the  martyrdom  of  their  holy  bi- 
shop St.  Polycarp,  who  was  equally  a  disciple  of  the  apostles, 
addresses  it  to  "  The  Catholic  churches. "f  This  characteristi- 
cal  title  of  the  true  church  continued  to  be  pointed  out  by  the 
succeeding  fathers  in  their  writings  and  the  acts  of  their  coun- 
cils.f  St.  Cyril,  bishop  of  Jerusalem,  in  the  fourtt  century, 
gives  the  following  directions  to  his  pupils  :  "  If  you  go  into 
any  city,  do  not  ask  merely.  Where  is  the  church,  or  house  of 
God 9  because  the  heretics  pretend  to  have  this;  but  ask, 
Which  is  the  Catholic  church  ?  because  this  title  belongs  alone 
to  our  holy  mother. "§  "  We,"  says  a  father  of  the  fifth  cen* 
tury,  "  are  called  Catholic  Christians." ||  His  contemporary, 
St.  Pacian,  describes  himself  as  follows :  *'  Christian  is  my 
name.  Catholic  is  my  sirname :  by  the  former  I  am  called,  by 
tlie  latter  I  am  distinguished.  By  the  name  of  Catholic,  our 
society  is  distinguished  from  all  heretics.^^^  But  there  is  not 
one  of  the  fathers  or  doctors  of  antiquity,  who  enlarges  so  co- 
piously or  so  pointedly  on  this  title  of  the  true  church,  as  the 
great  St.  Augustin,  who  died  at  the  end  of  the  fifth  century. 
"  Many  things,"  he  says,  "  detain  me  in  the  bosom^of  the  Ca^ 

•  See  four  collator!  copies  of  it  in  Dupin's  Bib.  Eccl.  torn.  i. 
i  Euieb.  Ecc.  Hi«t.  1.  iv.  c.  15. 

X  SS.  Justin.  Clem.  Alex.  Appolin.  1.  Nicaen.  can.  8.  1.  C.  P.  can.  7.  &Qk 

♦  Catech.  10.  ||  Salvian  Ue  Gubern.  Dei.  I,  iv. 
f  9.  Pacian,  £p.  i.  ad  Symp. 


Letter  XXV.  Ijl 

tholic  church — the  very  name  of  CATHOLIC  detains  me  in  it 
which  she  has  so  happily  preserved  amidst  the  different  heretics- 
that  whereas  they  are  all  desirous  of  being  called  Catholics 
jet,  if  any  stranger  were  to  ask  them,  Which  is  the  assembly  of 
the  Catholics  ?  none  of  them  would  dare  to  point  out  his  owo 
place  of  worship."*  To  the  same  purpose,  he  says  elsewhere 
"  We  must  hold  fast  the  communion  of  that  church  which  is 
called  Catholic,  not  only  by  her  own  children,  but  also  by  all 
her  enemies.  For  heretics  and  schismatics,  whether  they  will 
or  not,  when  they  arc  speaking  of  the  Catholic  church  with 
itrangers,  or  with  their  own  people,  call  her  by  the  name 
of  Catholic  ;  inasmuch  as  they  would  not  be  understood,  if  they 
did  not  call  her  by  the  name  by  which  all  the  world  calls 
her."f  In  proportion  to  their  affection  for  the  glorious  name 
of  Catholic,  is  the  aversion  of  these  primitive  doctors,  to  every 
ecclesiastical  name  or  title  derived  from  particular  persons, 
'  countries,  or  opinions.  "  What  new  heresy,"  says  St.  Vincent 
of  Lerins,  in  the  sixth  century,  "  ever  sprouted  up,  without 
bearing  the  name  of  its  founder,  the  date  of  its  origin  ?"  &ic.  J 
St.  Justin,  the  philosopher  and  martyr,  had  previously  made  the 
same  remark  in  the  second  century,  with  respect  to  the  Mar- 
cionite,  Valentinian,  and  other  heretics  of  his  time.<^  Finally, 
the  nervous  St.  Jerom  lays  down  the  following  rule  on  this  sub- 
ject:  "We  must  live  and  die  in  that  church,  which,  having 
been  founded  by  the  apostles,  continues  down  to  the  present 
day.  If,  then,  you  should  hear  of  any  Christians  not  deriving 
their  name  from  Christ,  but  from  some  other  founder,  as  the 
Marcionites,  the  Valentinians,  &:c.  be  persuaded  that  they  are 
Dot  of  Christ's  society,  but  of  Antichrist's. "|| 

I  now  appeal  to  you,  dear  sir,  and  to  the  respecta*:Ie  friends 
irho  are  accustomed  to  deliberate  with  you  on  religious  sub- 
jects, whether  these  observations  and  arguments  of  the  ancient 
fathers  are  not  as  strikingly  true  in  this  nineteenth  century,  as 
they  were  during  the  six  first  centuries,  in  which  they  wrote  .'* 
Is  there  not,  among  the  rival  churches,  one  exclusively  known  * 
and  distinguished  by  the  name  and  titJe  of  THE  CATHOLIC 
CHURCH,  as  well  in  England,  Holland,  and  other  countries, 
which  protest  against  this  church,  as  in  those  which  adhere  to 
it .?  Does  not  this  effulgent  mark  of  the  true  religion  so  incoD- 
testably  belong  to  us,  in  spite  of  every  effort  to  obscure  it,  by 

i 

•  Contra  Epist.  Fundam.  c.  I.  t  De  Ver.  Relig.  c.  7. 

$  Common.  AJvers.  Haer.  c.  34,  I  A^ren.  Trjphon. 

I  Advers.  Luciferan. 


1^  Letter  XXVL 

the  nick-names  of  Papists,  Romanists,  &c.*  that  the  role  of  St, 
Cyril  and  St.  Augustin  is  as  good  and  certain  now,  as  it  was  in 
their  times  ?  What  I  mean  is  this  :  if  any  stranger  in  London, 
Edinburgh,  or  Amsterdam,  were  to  ask  his  way  to  the  Catholic 
chapel,  I  would  risk  my  life  for  it,  that  no  sober  Protestant  in- 
habitant would  direct  him  to  any  other  place  of  worship  than 
to  ours.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  notorious,  that  the  different 
sects  of  Protestants,  like  the  heretics  and  schismatics  of  old,  are 
denominated  either  from  their  founders,  as  the  Lutherans,  the 
Calvinists,  the  Socinians,  &tc.  or  from  the  countries  in  which 
they  prevail,  as  the  church  of  England,  the  Kirk  of  Scotland, 
the  Moravians,  he.  or  from  some  novelty  in  their  belief  or  prac- 
tice, as  the  Anabaptists,  the  Independents,  the  Quakers,  &c. 
The  first  father  of  Protestants  was  so  sensible  that  he  and  they 
were  destitute  of  every  claim  to  the  title  of  Catholic,  that  in 
translating  the  apostles'  Creed  into  Dutch,  he  substituted  the 
word  Christian  for  that  of  Catholic.  The  first  Lutherans  did 
the  same  thing  in  their  catechism,  for  which  they  are  reproach- 
ed by  the  famous  Fulke,  who,  to  his  own  confusion,  proves  that 
the  true  church  of  Christ  must  be  Catholic  in  name,  as  well  as 
in  substance.^ 

I  am,  he, 

J.  M. 


LETTER  XXVI. 

To  JAMES  BROWN,  Esq.  fye. 

ON  THE  QUALITIES  OF  CATHOLICITY. 

Dea^  Sir, 
To  proceed  now,  from  the  name  Catholic,  to  the  signification 
of  that  name  :  ttf.s  is  to  be  gathered  from  the  etymology  of  the 
word  itself,  and  froai  th^i  sense  in  which  the  apostolical  fathers 
and  other  doctors  of  t\ie  church  have  constantly  used  it.  It  is 
derived  from  the  Greek  word  KafloXixoj,  which  me3.ns  Ainiver sal ; 
and,  accordingly,  it  has  ever  been  employed  by  those  writers  to 
discriminate  the  great  body  of  Christians,  under  their  legiti- 

•  St.  Gregory  of  Tours,  speaking  of  the  Arians,  and  other  contemporary  here- 
tics of  the  6th  century,  says  :  "  Romanorum  nomine  vocitant  nostra  religioni* 
homines."     Hist.  1.  xvii.  c.  25. 

t  On  the  New  Toatament,  p.  378. 


Letter  XXVL  157 

mate  pastors,  and  subsisting  in  all  nations  and  all  ages,  from 
those  comparatively  small  bodies  of  Christians,  who,  in  certain 
places  and  at  certain  times,  have  been  separated  from  it.  "  The 
Catholic  church,"  says  St.  Augustin,  "  is  so  called,  because  it 
is  spread  throughout  the  world."*  "  If  your  church,"  adds  he, 
addressing  certain  heretics,  "  is  Catholic,  show  me  that  it 
spreads  its  branches  throughout  the  world  ;  for  such  is  the 
meaning  of  the  word  Catholic."f  "  The  Catliolic  or  universal 
doctrine,"  writes  Si.  Vincent  ofLerins,  "  is  that  which  remains 
the  same  through  all  ages,  and  will  continue  so  till  the  end  of 
the  world.  He  is  a  true  Catholic  who  firmly  adheres  to  the 
faith  whicli  he  knows  the  Catholic  church  has  universally  taught 
from  the  days  of  old."{  It  follows,  from  these  and  other  testi- 
monies of  the  fathers,  and  from  the  meaning  of  the  term  itself, 
that  the  true  church  is  Catholic  or  Universal  in  three  several 
respects,  as  to  persons^  as  to  places,  and  as  to  time.  It  consists 
of  the  most  numerous  body  of  Christians  ;  it  is  more  or  less  dif- 
fused wherever  Christianity  prevails :  and  it  has  visibly  existed 
ever  since  the  time  of  the  apostles.  Hence,  dear  sir,  when  you 
hear  me  glorying  in  the  name  of  Catholic,  you  are  to  under- 
stand me  as  equivalently  proclaiming  thus  : — I  am  not  a  Lu- 
theran, nor  a  Calvinist,  nor  a  Whitfieldite,  nor  a  Wesleyan ;  I 
am  not  of  tlie  church  of  England,  nor  of  the  Kirk  of  Scotland, 
nor  of  the  consistory  of  Geneva;  I  can  tell  the  place  where  and 
the  time  when  each  of  these  sects  began  ;  and  I  can  describe  the 
limits  within  which  they  are  respectively  confined ;  but  I  am  a 
member  of  that  great  Catholic  church,  which  was  planted  by 
Christ  and  his  apostles,  and  has  been  spread  throughout  the 
world,  and  which  still  constitutes  the  main  stock  of  Christianity  ; 
that  to  which  all  the  fathers  of  antiquity  and  the  saints  of  all 
ages  have  belonged  on  earth,  and  still  belong  in  the  bright  re- 
gions above  ;  that  which  has  endured  and  overcome  the  perse- 
cutions and  heresies  of  eighteen  centuries ;  in  short,  that 
against  which  the  gates  of  hell  have  not  prevailed,  and  we  are 
assured,  never  shall  prevail.  All  this  is  implied  by  my  title  of 
Catholic. 

But  to  form  a  more  accurate  opinion  of  the  number  and  dif- 
fusiveness of  Catholics,  compared  with  any  sect  of  Protestants, 
it  is  proper  to  make  a  slight  survey  of  their  state  in  the  four 
quarters  of  the  world.     In  Europe,  then,  notwithstanding  the 


•  Epist.  170.  ad  S.  Sever.  t  Contra  Gaudent.  1.  iii.  c.  1. 

I  Commonit.     The  same  father  briefly  and  accurately  defines  the  Catholic 
doctrine  to  be  that  which  has  been  believed  Semper  et  ubiquc  et  ab  '  nnibtA. 


158  Letter  XXVL 

revolutionary  persecution  which  the  Catholic  religion  has  en- 
dured  and  is  enduring,  it  is  still  the  religion  of  the  several 
states  of  Italy,  and  most  of  the  Swiss  Cantons,  of  Piedmont,  of 
FVance,  of  Spain,  of  Portugal,  and  of  the  islands  in  the  Medi- 
terranean,  of  tln-ee  parts  in  four  of  the  Irish,  of  far  the  greater 
part  of  the  Netherlands,  Poland,  Bohemia,  Germany,  Hungary, 
and  tlie  neijj^hbouring  provinces ;  and,  in  those  kingdoms  and 
states  in  which  it  is  not  the  established  religion,  its  followers 
are   very   numerous,   as  in  Holland,  Russia,  Turkey,  the  Lu- 
tlieran  and  Calvinistic  states  of  Germany  and  England.      Even 
in  Sweden  and  Denmark  several  Catholic  congregations,  with 
their  respective  pastors,  are  to  be  found.     The  whole  vast  con- 
tinent of  South  America,  inhabited  by  many  millions   of  con- 
verted Indians,  as  well  as  by  Spaniards  and  Portuguese,  majr 
be  said  to  be  Catholic.     The  same  may  be  said  of  the  empire 
of  Mexico,  and   the  surrounding  kingdoms  in  North  America, 
including    California,   Cuba,   Hispaniola,    &lc.     Canada     and 
Louisiana  are   chiefly  Catholic ;  and   throughout    the   United 
Provinces,  the  Catholic  religion,  with  its  several  estabhshments, 
is  completely  protected,  and  unboundedly  propagated.     To  say 
nothing  of  the  islands  of  Africa  inhabited  by  Catholics,  such  as 
Malta,  Madeira,  Cape  Verd,  the  Canaries,  the  Azores,  Mauri- 
tius, Goree,  &,c.  there  are  numerous  churches  of  Catholics,  esta- 
blished, and  organized  under  their  pastors,  in  Egypt,  Ethiopia, 
Algiers,  Tunis,  and  the  other  Barbary  states  on  tl!e  northern 
coast ;  and  thence,  in  all  the  Portuguese  settlements  along  the 
western  coast,  particularly  at  Angola  and  Congo.     Even  on 
;the  eastern  coast,  especially  in  the  kingdom  of  Zanquebar  and 
Monomotapa,   are    numerous  Catholic    churches.     There    are 
also  numerous  Catholic  priests  and  many  bishops,  with  numer- 
ous flocks,  throughout  the  greater  part  of  Asia.     All  the  Ma- 
ronites  about  Mount  Libanus,  with   their  bishops,  priests  and 
monks,  are  Catholics,  so  are  many  of  the  Armenians,  Persians, 
and  other  Christians,  of  the  surrounding  kingdoms  and  pro- 
vinces.*    In  whatever  islands  or  states  the  Portuguese  or  Spa- 
nish power  does  prevail,  or  has  prevailed,  most  of  the  inhabitants, 
and   in   some  all  of  them   have  been  converted.     The  whole 
population  of  the  Philippine  islands,  consisting  of  two  millions 
of  souls,  is  all  Catholic.     The  diocese  of  Goa  contains  four 
hundred  thousand  Catholics.     In  short,  the  number  of  Catho- 
lics is  so  great  throughout  all  the  peninsula  of  India  within  the 
Ganges,  notwithstanding  the  power  and  influence  of  Britain,  as 

•  See  Sir  R.  Steel'i  accrount  of  the  Catholic  Religion  throughout  the  workL 


Letter  XXVI.  i^q 

to  excite  the  jealousy  and  complaints  of  the  celebrated  Protest- 
ant missionary,  Dr.  Buchanan.*  In  a  late  parliamentary 
record,  it  is  stated  that  in  Travancor  and  Cochin  is  a  Catholic 
archbishopric  and  two  bishoprics,  one  of  which  contains  thirty- 
five  thousand  communicants. -f  There  are  numerous  CathoHc 
flocks,  with  their  priests  and  even  bishops,  in  all  the  kingdoms 
and  states  beyond  the  Ganges,  particularly  in  Siam,  Cochin- 
china,  Tonquin,  and  the  difl'erent  provinces  of  the  Chinese  em- 
pire. I  must  add,  on  this  subject,  that,  whereas,  none  of  the 
great  Protestant  sects  was  ever  much  more  numerous  or  widely 
spread  than  it  is  at  present,  the  Catholic  church,  heretofore, 
prevailed  in  all  the  countries  which  they  now  collectively  in- 
habit. The  same  may  be  said  with  respect  to  the  Greek  schis- 
matics, and  in  a  great  measure  to  the  Mahometans.  It  is  in 
this  point  of  view  that  the  Right  Rev.  Dr.  Marsh  ought  to  in- 
stitute his  comparison  between  the  church  of  England  and  the 
church  of  Rome  ;J  or  rather  the  Catholic  churchy  in  communion 
with  the  See  of  Rome.  In  the  mean  time,  we  are  assured  by  his 
fellow  prelate,  the  bishop  of  Lincoln,  that  "  The  articles  and 
liturgy  of  the  church  of  England  do  not  correspond  with  the 
sentiments  of  the  eminent  reformers  on  the  continent,  or  with 
the  creeds  of  any  Protestant  churches  there  established. "§  And 
with  respect  to  this  very  church,  nothing  would  be  more  incon- 
sistent than  to  ascribe  the  greater  part  of  the  population  of  our 
two  islands  to  it.  For  if  the  Irish  Catholics,  the  Scotch  Pre»« 
byterians,  the  English  Methodists  and  other  Dissenters,  together 
with  the  vast  population  who  neither  are  nor  profess  to  be  of 
any  religion  at  all,  are  subtracted,  to  what  a  comparatively 
small  number  would  the  church  of  England  be  reduced  !  And, 
how  utterly  absurd  would  it  be  for  her  to  pretend  to  be  tli« 
Catholic  church !  Nor  are  these  the  only  subtractions  to  ht 
made  from  her  numbers,  and  indeed  from  those  of  all  other 
Christian  societies,  divided  from  the  true  church  ;  sinir..  there 
being  but  one  baptism,  all  the  young  children  who  liavr  been 
baptized  in  them,  and  all  invincibly  ignorant  ChristiuMS,  who 
exteriorly  adhere  to  them,  really  belong  to  the  Catholic  church, 
as  I  have  shown  above, 

In  finishing  this  subject,  I  shall  quote  a  passage  from  St.  Au- 
gustin,  which  is  as  applicable  to  the  sectaries  of  this  age  as  it 

•  See  Christian  Researches  in  Asia,  p,  131,     Mem.  Eccl, 
t  Dr,  Kerr's  Letter,  quoted  in  the  late  parliamentary  Report  on  the  Catholi* 
Question,  p.  487. 
X  See  hiB  Comparative  View  of  the  Churches  of  Epg^lftod  W^  Kom«  I 
I  ChRrji^,  in  1803, 


160  Letter  XXFL 

m'as  to  those  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived.  "  There  are  here- 
tics k^xery  where,  but  not  the  same  heretics  every  where.  For 
there  is  one  sort  in  Africa,  another  sort  in  the  East,  a  third  sort 
in  Egypt,  and  a  fourth  sort  in  Mesopotamia,  being  different  in 
different  countries,  though  all  produced  by  the  same  mother, 
namely,  pride.  Thus  also  the  faithful  are  all  born  of  one  com- 
mon mother,  the  Catholic  church ;  and  though  they  are  everjr 
where  dispersed,  they  are  every  where  the  same."* 

But  it  is  still  more  necessary  that  the  true  church  should  be 
Catholic  or  Universal  as  to  time  than  as  to  numbers  or  to  place. 
If  there  ever  was  a  period  since  her  foundation,  in  which  she  ha« 
failed,  by  teaching  or  promoting  error  or  vice,  then  the  pro- 
mises of  the  Almighty  in  favour  of  the  seed  of  David  and  the 
kingdom  of  the  Messiah,  in  the  Book  of  Psalms, f  and  in  those 
of  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  and  Daniel,  have  failed;!  then  the  more 
explicit  promises  of  Christ,  concerning  this  church  and  her 
pastors  have  fiiled  ;§  then  the  Creed  itself,  which  is  the  subject 
of  our  present  discussion,  has  been  false.  ||  On  this  point,  learn- 
ed Protestanis  have  been  wonderfully  embarrassed,  and  have  in- 
volved themselves  in  the  most  palpable  contradictions.  A  great 
proportion  of  them  have  maintained  that  the  church,  in  past 
ages,  totally  failed,  and  became  the  synagogue  of  satan,  and 
that  its  head  pastor,  the  bishop  of  Rome,  was  and  is  the  man  of 
tin,  the  identical  Antichrist :  but  they  have  never  been  able  to 
leltle  among  themselves,  when  this  most  remarkable  ^f  all  revo- 
lutions since  the  world  began,  actually  took  place  ;  or  who  were 
the  authors,  and  who  the  opposers  of  it ;  or  by  what  strange 
means  the  former  prevailed  on  so  many  millions  of  people  of 
different  nations,  languages,  and  interests,  throughout  Christen- 
dom, to  give  up  the  supposed  pure  religion,  which  they  had 
learned  from  their  fathers,  and  to  embrace  a  pretended  new 
and  false  system,  which  its  adversaries  now  call  Popery !  In 
a  word,  there  is  no  way  of  accounting  for  the  pretended  change 
of  religion,  at  whatever  period  this  may  be  fixed,  but  by  sup- 
posing, as  I  have  said,  that  the  whole  collection  of  Christians, 
on  some  one  night,  went  to  bed  Protestants,  and  awoke  the  next 
morning  Papists  ! 

That  the  church  in  communion  with  the  See  of  Rome  is  the 
original,  as  well  as  the  most  numerous  church,  i*  evident  in 


•  Lib.  de  Pact.  c.  8.  t  Ps.  Ixxxviii.  alias  Ixxxix.  &c. 

X  I«.  c.  liv.  lix.  Jerem.  xxxi.  31.  Dan.  ii.  44. 

4  Mat.  xvi.  la. — xxviii,  19,  20. 

I  I  believe  in  the  holj  Catholic  chviroh* 


Utter  XXVI.  15i 

Aeveral  points  of  view.  The  stone  cries  out  of  the  wall,  as  th« 
prophet  expresses  it,*  in  testimony  of  this.  1  mean  that  our 
venerable  cathedrals  and  other  stone  churches,  built  by  Catho. 
lie  hands  and  for  the  Catholic  worship,  so  as  to  resist,  in  som« 
sort,  that  which  is  now  performed  in  them,  proclaim  that  oura 
is  the  ancient  and  original  church.  This  is  still  more  clear 
from  the  ecclesiastical  historians  of  our  own  as  well  as  othe? 
nations.  Venerable  Bede,  in  particular,  bears  witness, f  that 
the  Roman  missionary,  St.  Augustin  of  Canterbury,  and  his 
companions,  converted  our  Saxon  ancestors,  at  the  end  of  the 
sixth  century,  to  the  belief  of  the  Pope's  supremacy,  transub- 
gtantiation,  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass,  purgatory,  the  invocation 
of  saints,  and  the  other  Catholic  doctrines  and  practices,  at 
learned  Protestants  in  general  agree.  J  Now,  as  these  missioi>» 
aries  were  found  to  be  of  the  same  faith  and  religion,  not  only 
with  the  Irish,  Picts,  and  Scots,  who  were  converted  almost  two 
centuries  before  them,  but  also  with  the  Britons  or  Welsh,  who 
became  Christians  in  the  second  century,  so  as  only  to  diffef 
from  them  about  the  time  of  keeping  Easter  and  a  few  other  ui>- 
essential  points,  this  circumstance  alone  proves  the  Catholic  re- 
ligion to  have  been  that  of  the  church  in  the  aforesaid  early 
age.  Still  the  most  demonstrative  proofs  of  the  antiquity  and 
originality  of  our  religion  are  gathered  from  comparing  it  with 
that  contained  in  the  works  of  the  ancient  fathers.  An  attempt 
was  made,  during  a  certain  period,  by  some  eminent  Protest- 
ants, especially  in  this  country,  to  press  the  fathers  into  theif 
service.  Among  these,  bishop  Jewel  of  Sarum,  was  the  most  coor 
spicuous.  He  not  only  boasted  that  those  venerable  witnesses 
of  the  primitive  doctrine  were  generally  on  his  side,  but  also 
published  the  following  challenge  to  the  Catholics  :  "  Let  them 
show  me  but  one  only  father,  one  doctor,  one  sentence,  two 
lines,  and  the  field  is  theirs. "§  However,  this  his  vain  boast- 
ing, or  rather  deliberate  impugning  of  the  known  truth,  only 
served  to  scandalize  sober  and  learned  Protestants,  and  among 
others,  his  biographer.  Dr.  Humphreys,  wlio  complahis  that  he 
thereby  "  Gave  a  scope  to  the  Papists,  and  spoiled  himself  and 
the  Protestant  church. "||  In  fact,  this  hypocrisy,  joined  with 
his  shameful  falsification  of  the  fathers,  In  quotmg  them,  occa^ 
sioned  the  conversion  of  a  beneficed  clergyman,  and  one  of  tha 

•  Habak.  ii.  11.  t  Hist.  Eccles. 

:j:  Bishop  Bale.     Humphreys  the  Centur,  of  Magfdeb.  &c. 
i  Jewel's  Sermon  at  St.  Paul's  Cross ;  likewise  his  Answers  to  Dr.  Cole. 
}l  Life  of  Jewel,  quoted  by  Walsingham,  in  his  invaluable  Search  inioMaUtn 
^Religion,  p.  172. 


t62  Letter  XXVff. 

«blest  writers  of  his  age,  Dr.  W.  Reynolds.*  Most  Protestant 
writers  of  later  timesf  follow  the  late  Dr.  Middleton,  and  Lu- 
ther himself,  in  giving  up  the  ancient  fathers  to  the  Catholics 
without  reserve,  and  thereby  the  faith  of  the  Christian  church 
during  the  six  first  centuries,  of  which  faith  these  fathers  were 
the  witnesses  and  the  teachers.  Among  other  passages  to  this 
purpose,  the  above  named  doctor  writes  as  follows :  "  Every 
one  must  see  what  a  resemblance  the  principles  and  practice  of 
the  fourth  century  bear  to  the  present  rites  of  the  Popish 
church."!  Thus,  by  the  confession  of  her  most  learned  adver- 
faries  our  churA  is  not  less  CATHOLIC  or  Universal,  as  to 
timCf  than  she  is  with  respect  to  name,  locality,  and  numbers, 

I  am,  he. 

J.M. 


LETTER  XXVIL 
To  JAMES  BROWN,  Esq. 

OBJECTIONS  ANSWERED. 

Dear  Sir, 
I  HAVE  received  the  letter  written  by  your  visitel*,  the  Rev. 
Joshua  Clark,  B.  D.  at  the  request,  as  he  states,  of  certain  mem- 
bers of  your  society,  animadverting  on  my  last  to  you ;  an  an- 
«wer  to  which  letter  I  am  requested  to  address  to  you.  The 
Reverend  gentleman's  arguments  are  by  no  means  consistent 
one  with  another;  for  like  other  determined  controvertists,  he 
attacks  his  adversary  with  every  kind  of  weapon  that  comes  to 
his  hand,  in  the  hopes  joer/a^  ct  nefas  of  demolishing  him.  He 
maintains,  in  the  first  place,  that,  though  Protestantism  was  not 
visible  before  it  was  unveiled  by  Luther,  it  subsisted  in  the 
hearts  of  the  true  faithful,  ever  since  the  days  of  the  apostles, 
and  that  the  believers  in  it  constituted  the  real  primitive  Catho- 
lic church.  To  this  groundless  assumption  I  answer,  that  an 
invisible  church  is  no  church  at  all ;  that  the  idea  of  such  a 
church  is  at  variance  with  the  predictions  of  the  prophets  re- 
specting Jesus  Christ's  future  church,  where  they  describe  it  at 

•  Dodd's  Church  Hist.  vol.  ii. 

f  See  the  acknowledgment,  on  this  head,  of  tl^e  learned  Protestants,  Obretcht, 
Dumoulin,  and  Caustibon, 
%  Inquiry  into  Miracles,  Introd.  p.  45. 


Letter  XXVIL  103 

a  mountain  on  the  top  of  mountains,  Is.  ii.  2.  Mic.  iv.  2.  and  sii 
a  city,  whose  watchmen  shall  never  hold  their  peace,  Is.  Ixii.  6. 
and,  indeed,  with  the  injunction  of  our  Lord  himself,  to  tell  the 
church,  Mat.  xviii.  17,  in  a  certain  case,  which  he  mentions.  It 
is  no  less  repugnant  to  the  declaration  of  Luther,  who  says  of 
himself,  "  At  first  I  stood  alone  :"*  and  to  that  of  Calvin,  who 
says,  "  The  first  Protestants  were  obliged  to  break  off  from  the 
whole  world  ;"f  as  also  to  that  of  the  church  of  England  in  her 
Homilies,  where  she  says,  "  Laity  and  clergy,  learned  and  un- 
learned, all  ages,  sects  and  degrees,  have  been  drowned  in 
abominable  idolatry,  most  detested  by  God  and  damnable  to 
man,  for  eight  hundred  years  and  more. "J  As  to  the  argument 
in  favour  of  an  invisible  church,  drawn  from  1  Kings  xix.  18. 
where  the  Almighty  tells  Elijah,  /  have  left  me  seven  thousand 
in  Israel,  whose  knees  have  not  been  howed  to  Baal;  our  divines 
fail  not  to  observe,  that  however  invisible  the  church  of  the  Old 
Law  was  in  the  schismatical  kingdom  of  Israel,  at  the  time  here 
spoken  of,  it  was  most  conspicuous  and  flourishing  in  its  proper 
seat,  the  kingdom  of  Judah,  under  the  pious  king  Josaphat. 
Mr.  Clark's  second  argument  is  borrowed  from  Dr.  Porteus, 
and  consists  in  a  mere  quibble.  In  answer  to  the  question; 
**  Where  was  the  Protestant  religion  before  Luther?"  this  pre- 
late replies,  "  It  was  just  where  it  is  now  :  only  that  then  it  was 
corrupted  with  many  sinful  errors,  from  which  it  is  now  reform- 
ed."*^ But  this  is  to  fall  back  into  the  refuted  system  of  an  in- 
visible church;  it  is  also  to  contradict  the  Homilies,  or  else  It 
is  to  confess  the  real  truth,  that  Protestancy  had  no  existence  at 
all  before  the  sixteenth  century. 

The  Reverend  gentleman  next  maintains,  on  quite  opposite 
grounds,  that  there  have  been  large  and  visible  societies  of  Pro- 
testants, as  he  calls  them,  who  have  stood  in  opposition  to  the 
church  of  Rome,  in  all  past  ages.  True,  there  have  been  here- 
tics and  schismatics  of  one  kind  or  other  during  all  that  time, 
from  Simon  Magus,  down  to  Martin  Luther;  many  sects  of 
whom,  such  as  the  Arians,  the  Nestorians,  the  Eutychians,  the 
Monotholites,  the  Albigenses,  the  Wicklifiites,  and  the  Hussites, 
have  been  exceedingly  numerous  and  powerful  in  their  turns, 
though  most  of  them  now  have  dwindled  away  to  nothing :  but 
observe,  that  none  of  the  ancient  heretics  held  the  doctrines  of 
any  description  of  modem  Protestants,  and  all  of  them  main- 
tained doctrines  and  practices  which  modern  Protestants  repro- 

•  Opera.  Pref.  t  Epist.  171,  J  Perils  of  Idolatry,  p»  iii 

4  Confut.  p.  79. 


164  Letter  XXFH, 

bate,  as  much  as  Catholics  do.  Thus  the  Albigenses  were  real 
Manicheans,  holding  two  First  Principles,  or  Deities,  attributing 
the  Old  Testament,  the  propagation  of  the  human  species,  t.6 
Satan,  and  acting  up  to  these  diabolical  maxims.^  The  Wick- 
liffites  and  Hussites  were  tlie  levelling  and  sanguinary  Jacobins 
of  the  times  and  countries  in  which  they  lived  ;f  in  other  re- 
spects these  two  sects  were  Catholics,  professing  their  belief  in 
the  seven  sacraments,  the  mass,  the  invocation  of  saints,  purga- 
tory, he.  If,  then,  your  Reverend  visiter  is  disposed  to  admit 
such  company  into  his  religious  communion,  merely  because 
they  protested  against  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope,  and  some 
other  Catholic  tenets,  he  must  equally  admit  Jews,  Mahometans, 
and  Pagans  into  it,  and  acknowledge  them  to  be  equally  Pro- 
testants  with  himself. 

Your  Reverend  visiter  concludes  his  letter  with  a  long  disser- 
tation, in  which  he  endeavours  to  show,  that  however  we  Catho- 
lics may  boast  of  the  antiquity  and  perpetuity  of  our  church  in 
past  times,  our  triumphs  must  soon  cease  by  the  extinction  of 
this  church,  in  consequence  of  the  persecution  now  carrying  on 
against  it  in  France,  and  other  parts  of  the  continent,  J  and  also 
from  the  preponderance  of  the  Protestant  power  in  Europe,  and 
particularly  that  of  our  own  country,  which,  he  says,  is  nearly 
as  much  interested  in  the  extirpation  of  Popery  as  of  Jacobin^ 
Jsm.  My  answer  is  this  :  I  see  and  bewail  the  anti-Catholic 
persecution  which  has  been,  and  is  carried  on  in  Fraace  and  its 
dependent  states,  where  to  decatholicize  is  the  avowed  order  of 
the  day.  This  was  preceded  by  the  less  sanguinary,  though 
equally  anti-Catholic  persecution  of  the  emperor  Joseph  II.  and 
his  relatives  in  Germany  and  Italy.  I  hear  the  exultations  and 
nenaces  on  this  account,  of  the  Wranghams,  De  Coetlegons, 
Powsons,  Bichenos,  Ketts,  Fabers,  Daubenys,  and  a  crowd  of 
other  declamatory  preachers  and  writers,  some  of  whom  pro- 
claim that  the  Romish  Babylon  is  on  the  point  of  falling, 
and  others  that  she  is  actually  fallen.  In  the  mean  time,  though 
more  living  branches  of  the  mystical  vine  should  be  cut  off  by  / 
the  sword,  and  more  rotten  branches  should  fall  off,  from  their  'i 
own  decay ,<^  I  am  not  at  all  fearful  for  the  life  of  the  tree  itself; 

♦  See  an  account  of  them,  and  the  authorities  on  which  this  rests,  in  Lettert 
to  a  Prebendary,  Letter  IV.  t  Ibid. 

X  Namely,  in  1802. 

♦  Since  the  present  letter  was  written,  many  circumstances  have  occurred  to 
show  the  mistaken  politic^  of  our  rulers,  in  endeavouring  to  weaken  and  supplant 
the  reli^on  of  their  truly  loyal  and  conscientious  Catholic  subjects.  Among 
Other  measures  for  this  purpose,  may  be  mentioned  the  late  instructions  sent  to 


Letter  XXVIL  ^^ 

since  the  divine  veracity  is  pledged  for  its  safety,  as  long  as  the 
sun  and  moon  shall  endure,  Ps.  Ixxxix. ;  and  since  the  experience 
of  eighteen  centuries  has  confirmed  our  faith  in  these  divine 
promises.  During  this  long  interval,  kingdoms  and  empires 
have  risen  and  fallen,  the  inhabitants  of  every  country  have 
been  repeatedly  changed ;  in  short,  every  thing  has  changed 
except  the  doctrine  and  jurisdiction  of  the  Catholic  church, 
which  are  precisely  the  same  now  as  Christ  and  his  apostles 
left  them.  In  vain  did  Pagan  Rome,  during  three  centuries, 
exert  its  force  to  drown  her  in  her  own  blood ;  in  vain  did 
Arianism  and  other  heresies  sap  her  foundations,  during  two 
centuries  more ;  in  vain  did  hordes  of  barbarians,  from  the 
north,  and  of  Mahometans,  from  the  south,  labour  to  overwhelm 
her ;  in  vain  did  Luther  swear  that  he  himself  would  be  her 
death  :*  she  has  survived  these,  and  numerous  other  enemies 
equally  redoubtable ;  and  she  will  survive  even  the  fury  and 
machinations  of  anti-christian  philosophy,  though  directed 
against  her  exclusively  :  for  not  a  drop  of  Protestant  blood  has 
been  shed  in  this  impious  persecution.  Nor  is  that  church 
which,  in  a  single  kingdom,  the  very  head  quarters  of  infidelity, 
could  at  once  furnish  twenty-four  thousand  martyrs  and  sixty 
thousand  voluntary  exiles,  in  defence  of  her  faith,  so  likely  to 
sink  under  external  violence,  or  internal  weakness,  as  your  Rev. 
visiter  supposes.  Alluding  to  the  then  recent  attempt  of  the 
emperor  Julian  to  falsify  the  prophecy  of  Daniel  by  rebuilding 
the  Jewish  temple,  St.  John  Chrysostom  exclaimed,  "  Behold 
the  temple  of  Jerusalem  ;  God  has  destroyed  it,  and  have  men 
been  able  to  restore  it  ?     Behold  the  church  of  Christ ;  God 

the  governor  of  Canada,  which  Catholic  province  alone  remained  faithful  at  the 
time  of  trial,  when  all  the  Protestant  provinces  abjured  their  allegiance.  To 
the  same  intent  may  be  cited  the  letter  of  Dr.  Kerr,  senior  chaplain  of  fort  St. 
George,  quoted  in  the  late  Parliamentary  Report.  By  this  it  appears  that  th« 
Catholics  in  that  province  generally  converted  about  three  hundred  Infidels  to 
Christianity  every  year,  and  that  there  was  a  prospect  of  their  converting  many 
of  the  Hindoo  chiefs,  but  that  our  government  set  its  face  against  these  conrer- 
Hotu.  Thus  is  the  infamous  worship  of  Juggernaut  itself  preferred  to  the  religion 
which  converted  and  civilized  our  ancestors.  Juggernaut,  as  Dr.  Buchanan  in- 
forms us,  is  a  huge  idol,  carved  with  the  most  obscene  figures  round  it,  and  pub- 
licly worshipped  before  hundreds  of  thousands  with  obscene  songs  and  unnatural 
rites,  too  gross  to  be  described.  It  is  placed  on  a  carriage,  under  the  wheels  of 
which  great  numbers  of  its  votaries  are  encouraged  to  throw  themselves  in  order 
to  be  crushed  to  death  by  them.  Now  this  infernal  worship  is  7iot  barely  permit' 
tedf  but  even  supported  by  our  government  in  India,  as  it  takes  a  tribute  from 
«ach  individual  who  is  present  at  it,  and  likewise  defrays  the  expense  ofity  to  th« 
amount,  says  Dr.  Buchanan,  of  8,700/.  annually,  including  the  Iteep  of  the  pros- 
titutes, &o. 

•  Luther  ordered  this  epitaph  to  be  engraved  on  hii  tomb  :  Pcttiterem  rtvem^ 
moritiu  ero  morsiuay  Papa. 


166  Letter  XXVIIL 

.has  built  it,  have  men  been  able  to  destroy  it?"  Should  the 
Almighty  permit  such  a  persecution  to  befall  any  of  the  Pro- 
testant communions,  as  we  have  beheld  raging  against  the  Ca- 
tholic church  on  the  continent,  does  your  visiter  really  believe 
they  will  exhibit  the  same  constancy,  in  suffering  for  their  re- 
spective tenets,  that  she  has  shown  in  defence  of  hers  ?  In  fact ; 
for  what  tenets  should  their  members  suffer  exile  and  death, 
since,  without  persecution,  they  have  all,  in  a  manner,  abandon- 
ed their  original  creeds,  from  the  uncertainty  of  their  rule  of 
faith,  and  their  own  natural  mutability  ?  Human  laws  and  pre- 
miums may  preserve  the  exterior  appearance,  or  mere  carcass  of 
a  churchy  as  one  of  your  divines  expresses  it ;  but,  if  the  pastors 
and  doctors  of  it  should  demonstrate  by  their  publications  that 
they  no  longer  maintain  her  original  fundamental  articles,  caa 
we  avoid  subscribing  to  the  opinion,  expressed  by  a  late  digni- 
tary, that  "  the  church  in  question,  properly  so  called,  is  not  in 
eiustence  ?"* 

I  am,  &;c. 

J.  M. 


LETTER  XXVIIL 
To  JAMES  BROWJy,  Esq. 

OJr  THE  APOSTOLICITY  OF  THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH. 

Dear  Sir, 
The  last  of  the  four  marks  of  the  church,  mentioned  in  our 
common  Creed,  is  Apostolicity.  We  each  of  us  declare,  in 
our  solemn  worship,  I  believe  in  one,  holy,  Catholic  and  APOS^ 
TOLICAL  church.  Christ's  last  commission  to  his  apostles 
was  this :  Go  teach  all  nations,  baptizing  them  in  the  name  of 
the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost:  and,  lo  !  I 
am  with  you  always,  even  unto  THE  EJVD  OF  THE 
WORLD.  Mat.  xxviii.  20.  Now  the  event  has  proved,  as  I 
have  already  observed,  that  the  apostles,  themselves,^were  only 
to  live  the  ordinary  term  of  man's  life ;  therefore,  the  commis- 
sion of  preaching  and  ministering,  together  with  the  promise  of 
the  Divine  assistance,  regards  the  successors  of  the  apostles,  no 
less  than  the  apostles  themselves.     This  proves  that  there  must 

•  Confessional,  p.  S44. 


Letter  XXV III.  167 

have  been  an  uninterrupted  series  of  such  successors  of  the 
apostles  in  every  age  since  their  time,  that  is  to  say,  successor! 
to  their  doctrine^  to  their  jurisdiction,  to  their  orders,  and  to 
their  mission.  Hence  it  follows  that  no  religious  society  what- 
ever, which  cannot  trace  its  succession,  in  these  four  points,  up 
to  the  apostles,  has  any  claim  to  the  characteristic  title,  APOS- 
TOLICAL. 

Conformably   with   what   is    here   laid  down,  we  find  the 
fathers  and  ecclesiastical  doctors  of  every  age  referring  to  this 
mark  of  apostolical  succession,  as  demonstrative  of  their  belong- 
ing to  the  true  church  of  Christ.     St.  Irengeus  of  Lyons,  the 
disciple  of  St.  Polycarp,  who  himself  appears  to  have  been  con- 
secrated by  St.  John  the  evangelist,  repeatedly  urges  this  argu- 
ment against  his  contemporary  heretics.     "  We  can  count  up,'* 
he  says,  "  those  who  were  appointed  bishops  in  the  churches 
by  the  apostles  and  their  successors  down  to  us,  none  of  whom 
taught  this  doctrine.     But  as  it  would  be  tedious  to  enumerate 
the  succession  of  Bishops  in  the  diflerent  churches,  we  refer  you 
to  the  tradition  of  that  greatest,  most  ancient,  and  universally 
known  church,  founded  at  Rome  by  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul, 
and  which  has  been  preserved  there  through  the  succession  of 
its  bishops  down  to  the  present  time."     He  then   recites  the 
names  of  the  several  Popes  down  to  Eleutherius,  who  was  then 
living.*     Tertullian,  who  also  flourished  in  the  same  century, 
argues  in  the  same  manner,  and  challenges  certain  heretics,  in 
these  terms:  "  Let  them  produce  the  origin  of  their  church  5  let 
them  display  the  succession  of  their  bishops,  so  that  the  first  of 
them  may  appear  to  have  been  ordained  by  an  apostolic  man, 
who  persevered  in  their  communion."     He  then  gives  a  list  of 
the  pontiffs  in  the  Roman  See,  and  concludes  as  follows :  **  Let 
the  Heretics  feign  any  thing  like  this."f     The  great  St.  Au- 
gustin,  who  wrote  in  the  fifth  century,  among  other  motives  of 
credibility  in  favour  of  the  Catholic  religion,  mentions  the  one 
in  question:  "  I  am  kept  in  this  church,"  he  says,  "  by  the  suc- 
cession of  prelates  from  St.  Peter,  to  whom  the  Lord  committed   J 
the  care  of  his  sheep,  down  to  the  present  bishop. "|     In  like   * 
manner  St.  Optatus,  writing  against  the  Donatists,  enumerates 
all  the  Popes  from  St.  Peter  down  to  the  then  living  Pope, 
Siricius,  '*  with  whom,"  he  says,  "  we  and  all  the  world  are 
imited  in  communion.  Do  you,  Donatists,  now  give  the  history 


♦  Lib.  iii.  advers,  Haer.  c.  iii. 

t  "  Fingant  tale  aliquid  haeretici,**     Prsescript. 

%  Contra  Epist.  Fuudam. 


168  Letter  XXVIIL 

of  your  episcopal  ministry."*  In  fact,  this  mode  of  proving 
the  Catholic  church  to  be  apostolical  is  conformable  to  common 
sense  and  constant  usage.  If  a  prince  is  desirous  of  showing 
his  title  to  a  throne,  or  a  nobleman  or  gentleman  his  claim  to 
an  estate,  he  fails  not  to  exliibit  his  genealogical  table,  and  to 
trace  his  pedigree  up  to  some  personage  whose  right  to  it  was 
imquestionable.  I  shall  adopt  the  same  precise  method  on  the 
present  occasion,  by  sending  your  society  a  slight  sketch  of  our 
apostolical  tree,  by  which  they  will  see,  at  a  glance,  an  abridg- 
ment of  the  succession  of  our  chief  bishops  in  the  apostolical 
See  of  Rome,  from  St.  Peter  up  to  the  present  edifying  pontiff, 
Pius  VII,  as  likewise  that  of  other  illustrious  doctors,  prelates 
and  saints,  who  have  defended  the  apostolical  doctrine  by  their 
preaching  and  writings,  or  who  have  illustrated  it  by  their  lives. 
They  will  also  see  the  fulfilment  of  Christ's  injunction  to  the 
apostles  and  their  successors  in  the  conversion  of  nations  and 
people  to  his  faith  and  church.  Lastly,  they  will  behold  the 
unhappy  series  of  heretics  and  schismatics,  who,  in  difterent 
ages,  have  fallen  oft'  from  the  doctrine  or  communion  of  the 
apostolic  church.  But  as  it  is  impossible,  in  so  narrow  a  com- 
pass as  the  present  sheet,  to  give  the  names  of  all  the  Popes,  or 
to  exhibit  the  other  particulars  here  mentioned  in  the  distinct 
and  detailed  manner  which  the  subject  seems  to  require,  I  will 
try  to  supply  the  deficiency  by  the  subjoined  copious  note.f 

*  Contra  Parmen.  lib.  ii. 

t  Within  the  first  century  from  the  birth  of  Christ,  this  long  expected  Mes- 
siah founded  the  kingdom  of  his  holy  church  in  Judaea,  and  chose  his  apostles  to 
propagate  the  same  throughout  the  earth,  over  whom  he  appointed  Simon,  as  the 
centre  of  union  and  head  pastor ;  charging  him  to  feed  his  whole  flock,  sheep  as 
well  as  lambs,  giving  him  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  and  changing  his 
name  into  that  of  PETER,  or  ROCK;  adding,  on  {his  rock  I  will  build  my 
»kurch.  Thus  dignified,  St.  Peter  first  established  his  See  at  Antioch,  the  head 
city  of  Asia,  whence  he  sent  his  disciple  St.  Mark  to  establish  and  govern  the  See 
of  Alexandria,  the  head  city  of  Africa.  lie  afterwards  renioveil  liis  own  See  to 
Rome,  the  capital  of  Europe  and  the  world.  Here,  having,  with  St.  Paul,  seal- 
ed the  Gospel  with  his  blood,  he  transmitted  his  prerogative  to  St.  Linus,  from 
whom  it  descended  in  succession  to  St.  Cletus  and  St.  Clement.  Among  the 
other  illustrious  doctors  of  this  age  are  to  be  reckoned,  first,  the  other  apostles, 
then  SS.  Mark,  Luke,  Barnaby,  Timothy,  Titus,  Hernias,  Ignatius,  bishop  of 
Antioch,  and  Polycarp  of  Smyrna.  From  the  few  remaining  writings  of  thejo 
may  be  gathered  the  necessity  of  unity  and  submission  to  bishops,  tradition,  th« 
real  presence,  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass,  veneration  for  relics,  itc.  ▼  In  this  aige, 
churches  were  founded,  besides  the  above-mentioned  places,  in  Samaria, 
throughout  lesser  Asia,  in  Armenia,  India,  Grvpc.e,  Eg}'pt,  Ethiopia,  Italy, 
Spain,  and  Gaul;  in  this  apoftolical  age,  aho,  and  as  it  were  under  the  eyes  of 
the  apostles,  different  proud  innovators  pretended  to  reform  the  doctrine  which 
they  taught.  Among  these  were  Simon  the  Magician,  Hymeneus  and  Fhiletui^ 
I    the  iacontineJtit  Nicolsdtes,  CerinUius,  Ebion,  and  Meander. 


Letter  XXVIII.  I59 

I  do  not,  dear  sir,  pretend  to  exhibit  a  history  of  the  church 
nor  even  a  regular  epitome  of  it,  in  the  present  note,  any  mort 

CENT.  11. 

The  succession  of  chief  pastors  in  the  chair  of  Peter  was  kept  up  through  thii 
century  by  <he  following  Popes,  who  were  also,  for  the  most  part,  martyrs;  An- 
acletus,  Evaristus,  Alexander  I,  Xystus  I,  Telesphorus,  Hy^inus,  Pius  I,  Ani- 
cetus,  Soter,  Eleutherius,  who  sent  Fugatius  and  Daniianus  to  convert  the  Bri- 
tons, and  Victor  I,  who  exerted  his  authority  against  certain  Asiatic  bishops  for 
keeping  Easter  at  an  undue  time.  The  truth  of  Christianity  was  defended,  in 
this  age,  by  the  apologists  Quadratus,  Aristides,  Melito,  and  Justin,  the  philoso- 
pher and  martyr;  and  the  rising  heresies  of  Valentinian,  Marcion,  and  Carpo- 
crates,  were  confodnded  by  the  bishops  Dionysius  of  Corinth,  and  Theophylus  of 
Antioch,  in  the  east,  and  by  St.  Irenjeus  and  TertuUian,  in  the  west.  In  the 
mean  time,  the  Catholic  church  was  more  widely  spread,  through  Gaul,  Ger- 
many, Scythia,  Africa,  and  India,  besides  Britain^ 

CENT.  III. 

The  Popes  who  presided  over  the  church,  in  the  third  age,  wet-e  all  eminent 
for  their  sanctity,  and  almost  all  of  them  martyrs.  Their  names  are  Zephyrinu?, 
Calixtus  I,  Urban  I,  Pontianus,  AntherUs,  Fabian,  Cornelius,  Lucius,  Stephen  I, 
Xystus  11,  Dionysius,  Felix  I,  Etuychian,  Caius,  and  Marcellinus.  The  most 
celebrated  doctors  of  this  age  were  St.  Clement  of  Alexandria,  Origen,  Minu- 
tius  Felix,  St.  Cyprian,  St.  Ilypolitus,  both  martyrs,  and  St.  Gregory,  bishop, 
surnamed  for  his  miracles  Thaumaturgus.  At  this  time  Arabia,  the  Belgic  Pro- 
vinces, and  many  districts  of  Gaul,  were  almost  wholly  converted  :  while  Paul 
of  Samosata,  for  denying  the  divinity  of  Christ,  Sabellus,  for  denying  the  dis- 
tinction of  persons  in  the  B.  Trinity,  and  Novatus,  for  denying  the  power  of  th« 
church  to  remit  sins,  with  Manes,  who  believed  in  two  deities,  were  cut  off  ai 
rotten  branches  from  the  Apostolic  tree. 

CENT.  IV. 

St.  Marcellus,  the  first  Pope  in  this  century,  died  through  the  hardships  of  im- 
prisonment for  the  faith.  After  him  came  Eusebius,  Melchiades,  Silvester,  un- 
der whom  the  Councils  of  Aries,  against  the  Donatists,  and  of  Nice,  against  th« 
Arians,  were  held,  Marcus  Julius,  in  whose  time  the  right  of  appeal  to  the  Ro- 
man See  was  confirmed,  Liberius,  and  Damasus.  The  church,  which  hitherto 
had  been  generally  persecuted  by  the  Roman  emperors,  was,  in  this  age,  alter- 
nately protected  and  oppressed  by  them.  In  the  mean  time,  her  numbers  were 
prodigiously  increased  by  conversions  througJiout  the  Roman  empire,  and  also  in 
Armenia,  Iberia,  and  Abyssinia,  and  her  faith  w^s  invincibly  maintained  by  St. 
Athanasius,  St.  Hilary,  St.  Gregory  Nazianzen,  St.  Basil,  St.  Ambrose  of  Milan, 
&c.  against  the  Arians,  who  opposed  the  divinity  of  Christ,  the  Macedonians, 
who  opposed  that  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Aerians,  who  impugned  episcopacy, 
fasting  and  prayers  for  the  dead,  and  other  new  heretics  and  schismatics. 

CENT.  V. 

During  this  age,  the  perils  and  sufferings  of  the  church  were  great ;  but  so  also 
were  the  resources  and  victories  by  which  her  Divine  Founder  supported  her. 
On  one  hand  the  Roman  empire,  that  fourth  great  Dynasty,  compared  by  Daniel 
to  iron,  was  broken  to  pieces  by  numberless  hordes  of  Goths,  Vandals,  Huns, 
Burgundians,  Franks  and  Saxons,  who  came  pouring  in  upon  the  civilized 
world,  and  seemed  to  be  on  the  point  of  overwhelming  arts,  sciences,  laws,  and 
religion,  in  one  undistinguished  ruin.  On  the  other  hand,  various  classes  of 
powerful  and  subtil  heretics  strained  every  nerve  to  corrupt  the  apostolical  doo- 


170  Letter  XXVm, 

than  in  the  apostolical  tree ;  nevertheless,  either  of  these  will 
give  you  and  your  respectable  society,  a  sufficient  idea  of  the 

trine,  and  to  interrupt  the  course  of  the  apostles'  iuccessors.  Among  these,  the 
Nestorians  denied  the  union  of  Christ's  divine  and  human  natures;  the  Euty- 
chians  confounded  them  together;  the  Pelagians  denied  the  necessity  of  divine 
^•race,  and  the  followers  of  Vigilanfius  scoffed  at  celibacy,  prayers  to  the  saints, 
and  veneration  for  their  relics.  Against  these  innovators  a  train  of  ii- 
ki?trious  pontiffs  and  holy  fathers  opposed  themselves,  with  invincible  fortitude 
and  decided  success.  The  Popes  were  Innocent  I,  Zosimus,  Boniface  I,  Celes- 
tin  1,  who  presided  by  his  legates  in  the  Council  of  Ephesus,  Xystus  III,  Leo  the 
Great,  who  presided  in  that  of  Chalcedon,  Hilarius,  Simplicius,  Felix  III,  Gela- 
•ius  I,  Anastacius  II,  and  Symachus.  Their  zeal  was  well  seconded  by  some  of 
ihe  brightest  ornaments  of  orthodoxy  and  literature  who  ever  illustrated  the 
church,  St.  John  Chrysostom,  St.  Jerom,  St.  Augustin,  St.  Gregory  ofNyssa,&c. 
By  their  means,  and  those  of  other  apostolic  Catholics,  not  only  were  the  ene- 
mies of  the  church  refuted,  but  also  her  bounds  greatly  enlarged  by  the  conver- 
sion of  the  Franks,  with  their  king,  Clovis,  of  the  Scotch  and  the  Irish.  The 
apostle  of  the  former  was  St.  Palladius,  and  of  the  latter  St.  Patrick,  both  com- 
missioned by  the  See  of  Rome. 

CENT.VI. 

The  church  had  to  combat  with  infidels,  heretics,  and  worldly  politicians,  in 
this  as  in  other  ages;  but  failed  not  to  receive  the  accustomed  proofs  of  the  di- 
vine protection,  amidst  her  dangers.  The  chief  bishops  succeeded  each  other  in 
the  following  order  :  Hormisdas,  St.  John  I,  who  died  a  prisoner  for  the  faith, 
Felix  IV,  Boniface  M,  John  K,  Agapetus  I,  St.  Silverius,  who  died  in  exile  for  the 
unity  of  the  church,  Vigilius,  Pelagius  I,  John  III,  Benedict  I,  Pelagius  II,  and 
St.  Gregory  the  Great,  a  name  which  ought  to  be  engraved  on  the  heart  of  every 
Englishman  who  knows  how  to  value  the  benefits  of  Christianity,  since  it  was  he 
who  first  undertook  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  our  Saxon  ancestors,  a«d,  when  he 
was  prevented  by  force  from  doing  this,  sent  his  deputies,  St.  Augustin  and  his 
companions,  on  this  apostolical  errand.  Other  beneficial  lights  of  this  age  were 
St.  Fulgentius  of  Ruspa,  Cesarius  of  Aries,  Lupus,  Germanus,  Severus,  Gregory 
of  Tours,  our  venerable  Gildas,  and  the  great  patriarch  of  the  monks,  St.  Bene- 
dict. The  chief  heretics  who  disturbed  the  peace  of  the  church  were  the  Ace- 
phali  and  Jacobites,  both  branches  of  Eutychianism,  the  Tritheists,  the  powerful 
supporters  of  the  Three  Chapters,  Severus,  Eleurus,  Mongus,  Athimius,  and  Aca- 
cius.  A  more  terrible  scourge,  however,  than  these,  or  than  any  other  which 
the  church  had  yet  felt,  God  permitted  in  this  age  to  fall  upon  her,  in  the  rapid 
progress  of  the  impostor  Mahomet;  what  however  she  lost  in  some  quarters,  wa» 
made  up  to  her  in  others,  by  tlic  suppression  of  x'Vrianism  among  the  Visigoths  of 
Spain  and  among  the  Ostrogoths  of  Italy,  and  by  the  conversion  of  the  Lazes, 
Axumites,  and  Southern  English. 

CENT.  vn. 

The  Popes  in  this  century  are  most  of  them  honoured  for  their  sanctity, 
namely,  Sabinianun,  Boniface  III,  Boniface  IV,  Deusdedit,  Boniface  V,  Hono- 
rius  I,  Severinus,  John  IV,  'J'heodorus,  Martin  I,  who  died  an  exilf,  in  defence 
of  the  faith,  Eifgcnius  I,  Vitalianus,  Domnus  I,  Agatho,  who  presided,  by  his 
legates,  in  the  sixth  General  Council,  hclil  against  the  Monotholites,  Leo  II,  Be- 
nedict 11,  John  V,  Conon,  and  Sergius  I.  Other  contemporary  doctors  and  saints 
were  St.  Sophronius  and  St.  Joiiii  the  almoner,  bishops,  and  St.  Maximus,  martyr,' 
in  the  East.  SS.  Isidore,  IMelbnsus  and  Eugeinus,  in  Spain,  SS,  Amand,  Eligius, 
Omer  and  Owen,  in  l^'runro,  and  SS.  Pauiinus,  Wilfrid,  Birinus,  Felix,  Chad, 
Aidan  and  Cuthbert,  in  England.     The  East,  at  this  time,  was  distracted  by  tho 


Letter  XXVIIJ.  171 

uninterupted  succession  of  supreme  pastors,  wliich  has  subsisted 
in  the  See  of  Rome  from  St.  Peter,  whom  Christ  made  head  of 

Monotholite  heretics,  and  in  some  parts,  by  the  Paulicians,  who  reviveii  the  de- 
testable heresy  of  the  Manicheans,  but  most  of  all  by  the  sanguinary  course  of  the 
Mabometans,  who  overran  the  most  fertile  and  civilized  countries  of  Asia  and 
Africa,  and  put  a  stop  to  the  apostolical  succession  in  the  primitive  Sees  of  the 
East.  To  compensate  for  these  losses,  the  church  spread  her  roots  wide  in  the 
northern  reg;ions.  The  whole  Heptarchy  of  England  became  Christian,  and 
diffused  the  sweet  odour  of  Christ  throughout  the  West.  Hence  issued  SS.  VVil- 
libord  and  Swibert  to  convert  Holland  and  Frizeland,  and  the  two  brothers,  of 
the  name  of  Ewald,  who  confirmed  their  doctrine  with  their  blood.  The  mar- 
tyr St.  Killian,  who  converted  Franconia,  was  an  Irishman;  but  all  these  apos- 
tolical'men  received  their  commission  from  the  chair  of  St.  Peter. 

CENT.  VIH. 

The  apostolic  succession  of  the  See  of  Rome  was  kept  up  in  this  age  by  John 
VI,  John  VII,  Sisinnius,  Constantine,  Gregory  II,  Gregory  III,  Zacharias,  Ste- 
phen II,  Stephen  III,  Paul  I,  Adrian  I,  who  presided  by  his  legates  in  the  seventh 
general  council  against  the  Iconoclasts,  and  Leo  III.  The  Saracens  now  crossed 
the  straits  of  Gibraltar  and  nearly  overran  Spain,  making  numerous  martyrs ; 
while  Felix  and  Elipand  broached  errors  in  the  West,  nearly  resembling  those 
of  Nestorius.  The  most  signal  defenders  of  the  orthodox  doctrine  were  St.  Ger- 
manus  Patriarch,  St.  John  Damascene,  Paul  the  deacon,  Ven.  Bede,  St.  Aid- 
helm,  St.  Willibald,  Alcuin,  St.  Boniface,  bishop  and  martyr,  and  St.  Lullus, 
Most  of  these  were  Englishmen,  and,  by  their  means,  Hessia,  Thuriugia,  Sax- 
ony, and  other  provinces,  were  added  to  the  Catholic  church. 

CENT.  IX. 

The  apostolic  tree,  in  this  age,  was  agitated  by  storms  more  violent  than 
usual ;  but,  being  refreshed  with  the  dew  of  grace  from  above,  held  fast  by  its 
roots.  Claudius  of  Turin,  united  in  one  system  the  heresies  of  Nestorius,  Vigi- 
lantius,  and  the  Iconoclasts,  while  Gotescale  laboured  to  infect  the  church  with 
predestinarianism.  A  more  severe  blow,  to  her,  however,  was  the  Greek 
schism,  occasioned  by  the  resentment  and  ambitioti  of  the  hypocrite,  Photiu?. 
But  the  greatest  danger  of  all  arose  from  the  overbearing  power  of  the  Anti- 
christian  musselmen,  who  now  carried  their  arms  into  Sicily,  France,  and  Italy, 
and  became  masters,  for  a  time,  of  the  holy  See  itself.  The  succession  of  it* 
bishops,  however,  continued  utiinlerrupted,  in  the  following  order:  Stephev 
V,  Pascal  I,  Eugenius  II,  Valentii),  Gregory  IV^,  Sergius  II,  Leo  IV,  Benedict  III, 
Nicholas  I,  Adrian  II,  who  presided  by  his  legates  in  the  f  ighth  general  council, 
John  Vin,  Marinus,  Adrian  III,  Stephen  VI,  Formosus,  Stephen  \'jl,  and  Roma- 
nus.  Other  props  of  the  church,  in  tliis  age,  were  Theodore  the  Studite,  St.  Ig- 
natius, the  legitimate  patriarch  of  C.  P.  Rabanus,  Hincmar,  and  Agobard, 
French  bishops,  together  with  our  countrymen,  St.  Swithun,  Neot,  Grimbalci, 
Alfred,  and  Edmund.  In  this  ago  St.  Ansgarius  converted  the  people  of  Holstein, 
and  SS.  Cyril  and  Methodius  the  Sclavonians,  Moravians,  and  Bohemians,  by 
virtue  of  a  commission  from  Pope  Adrian  II, 

CENT.  X. 

The  several  Popes  during  this  century  were  Theodore  11,  John  IX,  Benedict 
IV,  Leo  V,  Christopher,  Sergius  III,  Ana^tasius,  Lando,  John  X,  Leo  VI,  Ste- 
phen VIH,  John  XI,  Leo  VII,  Stephen  IX,  xMartin  II,  Agup«tus  11,  John  XII, 
Benedict  V,  John  XIII,  Domnus  H,  Benedict  VII,  John  XIV,  John  XV,  Rn4 
Creg;ory  V,     This  age  is  generally  considered  aa  the  least  oolighteued  by  piety 


172  Letter  XXVIIL 

his  church,  up  to  the  present  Pope,  Pius  VII.     And  this  attri-« 
bute  of  perpetual  succession,  you  are,  dear  sir,  to  observe,  is 


and  literature  of  tlie  whole  number.  Its  greatest  disgrace,  however,  arose  from 
the  misconduct  of  several  of  the  above-mentioned  pontiffs,  owing  to  the  prevalence 
of  civil  factions  at  Rome,  which  obstructed  the  freedom  of  canonical  election  :  yet, 
in  this  list  of  names,  there  are  ten  or  twelve,  which  do  honour  to  the  papal  calen- 
dar, and  even  those  wlio  disgraced  it  by  their  lives,  performed  their  public  duty, 
in  preserving  the  faith  and  unity  of  the  church,  irreproachably.  In  the  mean  time 
a  crowd  of  holy  bishops  and  other  saints,  worthy  the  age  of  the  apostles,  adorned 
most  parts  of  the  church,  which  continued  to  be  augmented  by  numerous  conver- 
sions. In  Italy  SS.  Peter  Damian,  Romuald,  Nilus,  and  Ratjjier,  bishop  of  Verona, 
adorned  the  church  with  their  sanctity  and  talents,  as  did  the  holy  prelates,  Ulrir, 
Wolfgang,  and  Bruno,  in  Germany,  and  Odo,  Dunstan,  Oswald,  and  Ethelwold, 
in  England.  At  this  time  St.  Adelbert,  bishop  of  Prague,  converted  the  Poles  by 
his  preaching  and  his  blood ;  the  Danes  were  converted  by  St.  Poppo,  the 
Swedes,  by  St.  Sigifrid,  an  Englishman,  the  people  of  lesser  Russia  by  SS.  Bruno 
and  Boniface,  and  the  Muscovites  by  missionaries  sent  from  Greece,  but  at  a  time 
when  that  country  was  in  communion  with  the  See  of  Rome. 

CENT.  XI. 

During;  this  age  the  vessel  of  Peter  was  steered  by  several  able  and  virtuous 
pontiffs.  Silvester  II  was  esteemed  a  prodis^y  of  learning  and  talents.  After 
him  came  John  XVIII,  John  XIX,  Sergius  iV,  Benedict  VIII,  John  XX,  Bene- 
dict IX,  Gregory  VI,  Clement  II,  Damascus  II,  Leo  IX,  who  has  deservedly  beea 
reckoned  among  the  saints,  Victor  II,  Stephen  X,  Nicholas  II,  Alexander  II, 
Gregory  VII,  who  is  also  canonized,  Victor  III,  and  Urban  II.  Other  defenders 
of  virtue  and  religion,  in  this  age,  were  St.  Elphege  and  Lanfranc,  archbishops 
of  Canterbury,  the  prelates  Burcard  of  Worms,  Fulbert  and  Ivo  of  Chartres, 
Odilo  an  abbot,  Alger  a  monk,  Guitmund  and  Theophylactus.  The  crown, 
also,  was  now  adorned  with  saints  equally  signal  for  their  virtue  an^  orthodoxy. 
In  England  shone  St.  Edward  the  confessor;  in  Scotland,  St.  Margaret ;  in  Ger- 
many, St.  Henry,  Emperor ;  in  Hungary,  St.  Stephen.  The  cloister  also  was 
now  enriched  with  the  Cisterchian  order,  by  St.  Rol)ert;  the  Carthusian  order 
wa5  founded  by  St.  Bruno;  and  the  order  of  Valombroso,  by  St.  John  Gualbert. 
While,  on  one  hand,  a  great  branch  of  the  apostolic  tree  was  lopped  off,  by  the 
second  defection  of  the  Greek  church,  and  some  rotten  boughs  were  cut  off 
from  it,  in  the  new  Manicheans,  who  had  found  their  way  from  Bulgaria  into 
France,  as  likewise  in  the  followers  of  the  innovator  Berengarius;  it  received 
fresh  strength  and  increase  from  the  conversion  of  the  Hungarians,  and  of  the 
Normans  and  Danes,  who  before  had  desolated  England,  France,  and  the  two 
Sicilies. 

CENT.  XII. 

In  this  century  heresy  revived  with  freph  vigour,  and  in  a  variety  of  forms, 
though  mostly  of  the  Manichean  family.  Mahometanism  also  again  threatened 
to  overwhelm  Christianity.  To  oppose  these,  the  Almighty  was  pleased  to  raise 
up  a  succession  of  as  able  and  virtuous  Popes  as  ever  graced  the  Tiara,  with  a 
proportionable  number  of  other  Catholic  champions  to  defend  his  c^use.  These 
were  Paschal  11,  (ielasius  II,  Calixtus  11,  Honorius  II,  Innocent  II,  who  held  the 
second  general  coinifil  of  Ivateran,  Celestin  11,  Lucius  II,  Eugenius  111,  Anasta- 
sius  IV,  Adrian  IV,  an  Englishman,  Alexander  III,  who  held  the  third  Lateran 
council,  Lticius  HI,  Urban  111,  Gregory  VIII,  Clement  III,  and  Celestin  III.  The 
doctors  of  note  wer»»,  in  the  first  place,  the  mellifluous  Bernard,  a  saint,  how- 
tvcr,  who  was  not  more  powerful  in  word  than  in  work;  likewise  the  venerabla 


Letter  XXVIII.  I73 

peculiar  to  the  See  of  Rome :  for  in  all  the  other  churches 
founded  by  the  apostles,  as  those  of  Jerusalem,  Antioch,  Alex- 
Peter,  abbot  of  Clugni,  St.  Anselm  and  St.  Thomas,  archbishops  of  Canterbury, 
Peter  Lombard,  master  of  the  sentences,  St.  Otto,  bishop  of  Bamberg,  St.  No'r- 
bert  of  Magdeburg,  St.  Henry  of  Upsal,  St.  Malachy  of  Armagh,  St.  Hugh  of 
Lincoln,  and  St.  William  of  York.  The  chief  heresies,  alluded  to,  were  those 
propagated  by  IVIarsilius  of  Padua,  Arnold  of  Brescia,  Henry  of  Tholouse,  Tano 
helm,  Peter  Bruis,  the  VValdenses,  or  disciples  of  Peter  Waldo,  and  the  Bogomi- 
lians,  Patarins,  Cathari,  Puritans,  and  Albigenses,  all  the  latter  being  different 
sects  of  Manicheans.  To  make  up  for  the  loss  of  these,  the  church  was  increased 
by  the  conversion  of  the  Norwegians  and  Livonians,  chiefly  through  the  labours 
of  the  above  named  Adrian  IV,  then  an  apostolic  missionary,  called  Nicholas 
Ijreakspeare.  Courland  was  converted  by  St.  Meinard,  and  even  Iceland  wa» 
engrafted  in  the  apostolic  tree  by  the  labours  of  Catholic  missionaries. 

CENT.  XIIL 

The  successors  of  St.  Peter  in  this  age  were  Innocent  III,  who  held  the  fourth 
Lateran  council,  at  which  four  hundred  and  twelve  bishops,  eight  hundred  ab- 
bots, and  ambassadors  from  most  of  the  Christian  sovereigns  were  present,  for 
the  extinction  of  the  impious  and  infamous  Albigensian  or  Manichean  heresy. 
Honorius  III,  Gregory  IX,  Celestin  IV,  who  held  the  first  general  council  of 
Lyons,  Alexander  IV,  Urban  IV,  Gregory  X,  who  held  the  second  council  of 
Lyons,  in  which  the  Greeks  renounced  their  schism,  though  they  soon  fell  back 
into  it,  Innocent  V,  Adrian  V,  John  XXI,  Nicholas  III,  Martin  IV,  Honorius  IV, 
Nicholas  IV,  Celestin  V,  who  abdicated  the  pontificate  and  was  afterwards  ca- 
nonized, and  Boniface  VIII.  The  most  celebrated  doctors  of  the  church  were  St. 
Thomas  of  Aquin,  St.  Bonaventure,  St.  Anthony  of  Padua,  and  St.  Raymond  of 
Pennafort.  Other  illustrious  supporters  and  ornaments  of  the  church,  were  St. 
Lewis,  king  of  France,  St.  Elizabeth,  queen  of  Hungary,  St.  Hedwidge  of  Po- 
land, St.  Francis  of  Assisium,  St.  Dominic,  St.  Edmund,  archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, St.  Thomas  of  Hereford,  and  St.  Richard  of  Chichester.  The  chief  here- 
tics were  the  Beguardi  and  Fratricelli,  whose  gross  iinmoralities  Mosheim  him- 
self confesses.  In  the  mean  time  Spain  was,  in  a  great  measure,  recovered  to 
the  Catholic  church  from  the  Mahometan  impiety ;  Courland,  Gothland,  and 
Estonia,  were  converted  by  Baldwin,  a  zealous  missionary  :  the  Cumani,  near 
the  mouths  of  the  Danube,  were  received  into  the  church,  and  several  tribes  of 
Tartars,  with  one  of  their  emperors,  were  converted  by  the  Franciscan  mission- 
aries, whom  the  Pope  sent  among  them,  not,  however,  without  the  martyrdom 
of  many  of  them. 

CENT.  XIV. 

Still  did  the  promise  of  Christ,  in  the  preservation  of  his  church,  contrary  to 
all  opposition,  and  beyond  the  term  of  all  human  institutions,  continue  to  be 
verified.     The  following  were  the  head  pastors,  who  successively  presided  ovei 
it ;  Benedict  XI,  Clement  V,  who  held  the  general  council  of  Vienna,  John 
XXII,  Clement  VI,  Innocent  VI,  Urban  V,  Gregory  XI,  Urban  VI,  and  Boniface 
IX.     Among  the  chief  ornaments  of  the  church,  in  this  age,  may  be  reckoned 
St.  Elizabeth,  queen  of  Portugal,  St.  Bridget  of  Sweden,  Count  Elzear  and  his 
Spouse  Delphina,  St.  Nicholas  of  Tolentino,  St.  Catharine  of  Sienna,  John  Rus- 
brock,  Peter,  bishop  of  Autun,  &;c.     The  Manichean  abominations  maintained 
and  practised  by  the  Turlupins,  Dulcinians  and  other  sects,  continued  to  exer- 
cise the  vigilance  and  zeal  of  the  Catholic  pastors,  and  the  Lollards  of  Germany, 
together  with  the  Wickliffites  of  England,  whose  errors  and  conduct  were  le- 
velled at  the  foundations  of  society,  as  well  as  of  religion,  were  opposed  by  aH 
Ibrue  Catholics  in  their  respective  stations.     The  chief  conquests  of  the  church 


174  LtVer  XXVIH. 

andria,  Corinth,  Ephesus,  Smyrna,  &tc.  owing  to  internal  dis- 
sensions and  external  violence,  the  succession  of  their  bishops 

in  this  century  were  in  Lithuania,  the  prince  and  people  of  which  received  h&r 
faith,  and  in  Great  Tartar)',  where  the  archbishopric  of  Cambalu  and  six  suf- 
frag;an  bishoprics  were  established  by  the  Pope.  Odoric,  the  missionary,  who 
furnished  the  account  of  these  events,  is  known  himself  to  have  baptized  twenty 
thousand  converts. 

CENT.  XV. 

The  succession  of  Popes  continued  through  this  century,  though  among  no- 
merous  difficulties  and  dissensions,  in  the  following  order :  Innocent  VII,  Grego- 
ry XII,  Alexander  V,  John  XXI!,  Martin  V,  Eugenius  IV,  who  held  the  general 
council  of  Florence,  and  received  the  Greeks,  once  more,  into  the  Catholic  com- 
munion, Nicholas  V,  Calixtu?  Ill,  Pius  II,  Paul  II,  l?ixtus  IV,  Innocent  VIII,  and 
Alexander  VI.  In  this  age  flourished  St.  Vincent  Ferrer,  the  Wonder-worker, 
both  in  the  order  of  grace  and  iu  that  of  nature,  St.  Francis  of  Paula,  whose 
miracles  were  not  less  numerous  or  extraordinary,  St.  Laurence  Justinian,  Pa- 
triarch of  Venice,  St.  Antonius,  archbishop  of  Florence,  St.  Casimir,  Prince  of 
Poland,  the  Venerable  Thomas  a  Kempis,  Dr.  John  Gerson,  Thomas  Waldensis, 
the  learned  English  Carmelite,  Alphonsus  Tostatus,  Cardinal  Ximenes,  &c.  At 
this  period  the  Canary  Islands  were  added  to  the  church,  as  were,  in  a  great 
measure,  the  kingdoms  of  Congo  and  Angola,  with  other  large  districts  in  Africa 
and  Asia,  wherever  the  Portuguese  established  themselves.  The  Greek  sehie^ 
matics  also,  as  I  have  said,  together  with  the  Armenians  and  Monotholites  of 
Egypt,  were,  for  a  time,  engrafted  on  the  apostolic  tree.  These  conquests, 
however,  were  dampt  by  the  errors  and  violence  of  the  various  sects  of  Hus- 
sites, and  the  immoral  tenets  and  practices  of  the  Adamites,  and  other  remnanti 
of  the  Albigenses^ 

CENT.  XVI. 

This  century  was  tlistinguished  by  that  furious  storm  from  the  north,  which 

stripped  the  apostolic  tree  of  so  many  leaves  and  branches  in  this  quarter.  That 
arrogant  monk,  Martin  Luther,  vowed  destruction  to  the  tree  itself,  and  engaged 
to  plant  one  of  those  separated  branches  instead  of  it ;  but  the  attempt  was 
fruitless ;  for  the  main  stock  was  sustained  by  the  arm  of  Omnipotence,  and  the 
dissevered  boughs  splitting  into  numberless  fragments,  withered,  as  all  such 
boughs  had  heretofore  dojje.  It  would  be  impossible  to  number  up  all  these  dis- 
cordant sects;  the  chief  of  them  were,  the  Lutherans,  the  Zuinglians,  the  Ana- 
baptists, the  Calvinists,  the  Anglicans,  the  Puritans,  the  Family  of  Love,  and 
the  Socinians.  In  the  moan  time,  on  the  trunk  of  the  apostolic  tree  grew  the 
following  Pontiffs;  Pius  III,  Julius  II,  who  held  the  fifth  Lateran  Council,  Loo 
X,  Adrian  VI,  Clement  \'II,  Paul  III,  Julius  III,  Marccllus  II,  Paul  IV,  Pius  IV, 
who  concluded  the  Council  of  Trent,  where  281  prelates  condemned  the  novel- 
ties of  Luther,  Calvin,  fcc,  St.  Pius  V,  Gregory  XIII,  Sixtus  V,  Urban  VII, 
Gregory  XIV,  Innocent  IX,  and  Clement  VIII.  Other  supporters  of  the  Catho- 
lic and  apostolic  church  agairist  the  attacks  made  upon  her,  were,  Fisher,  bi- 
shop of  Rochester,  Sir  Thomas  More,  Chancellor,  Cuthbert  Maine,  and  some 
hundreds  more  of  priests  and  religious  who  were  martyred  und^^r  Henry  VIII 
and  Elizabeth,  in  this  cause;  also  the  Cardinals  Pole,  Ilosius,  Cajetan  and  Al- 
len, with  the  writers  Eckius,  Cochleu,  Erasmus,  Canripion,  Parsons,  StapletoD, 
&c.  together  with  tliat  constellation  of  great  saints  which  then  appeared,  SB. 
Charles  Borromoo,  Cajetan,  Philip  Neri,  Ignatius,  F.  Xavier,  F.  Borgia,  Teresa, 
&c.  In  short,  the  damuges  sustained  from  the  northern  storm  were  amply  re- 
paid to  the  church,  by  innumerable  conversions  in  the  new  eastern  and  western 
worlds.    It  is  computed  that  St.  Xavier  alone  preached  the  faith  in  62  kingdomi 


Letter  XXVIIL  I75 

has,  at  different  times,  been  broken  and  confounded.  Hence 
the  See  of  Rome  is  emphatically  and  for  a  double  reason  call- 

or  independent  states,  and  baptized  a  million  of  converts  with  his  own  hand,  irj 
India  and  Japan.  St.  Lewis  Bertrand,  Martin  of  Valentia,  and  Burtliolomew 
Las  Casas,  with  their  fellow  missionaries,  converted  most  of  the  Mexicans,  and 
great  progress  was  made  in  the  conversion  of  the  Brazilians,  though  not  without 
the  blood  of  many  martyred  preachers  in  these  and  the  other  Catholic  missions. 
David,  emperor  of  Abyssinia,  with  many  of  his  family  and  other  subjects,  wer* 
now  reclaimed  to  the  church,  and  Pulika,  patriarch  of  the  Nestorians  in  Assyria, 
came  to  Rome,  in  order  to  join  the  numerous  churches  under  him  to  the  centre  of 
unity  and  truth. 

CENT.  XVII. 
The  sects,  of  which  I  have  been  speaking,  were,  at  the  beginning  of  this  cen- 
tury, in  their  full  vigour ;  and  though  they  diftercd  in  most  other  respects,  yet 
they  combined  their  forces,  under  the  general  name  of  Protestants,  to  overthrow 
Christ's  everlasting  church.      These  attempts,  however,  like  the  waves   of  the 
troubled  ocean,  were  dashed  to  pieces  against  the  rock  on  which  he  had  built 
it     On  the  contrary,  they  weakened  themselves  by  civil  wars  and  fresh  divi- 
sions.     The  Lutherans  split  into  Diaphorists  and   Adiaphorists,   the   Calvinisms 
into  Gomarists  and  Arminians,  and  the  Anglicans  into  Episcopalians,  Presbyte- 
rians, Independents,  and  Quakers.     A  vain  eilbrt  was  now  set  on  foot,  through 
Cyril  Lucaris,  to  gain  over  the  Greek  churches  to  Calvinism,  which  ended  in 
demonstrating  their  inviolable  attachment  to  all  the  controverted  doctrines  of 
Catholicity.     Auother  more  fatal  attempt,  was  made  to  infect  several  members 
of  the  church  itself  with  the  distinguishing  error  of  Calvinism,  under  the  name 
of  Jansenism.     But  the  successors  of  St.  Peter  continued,  through  the  whole  of 
the  century,  equally  to  make  head  against  Protestant  innovations,  Jansenistical 
vigour,  and  casuistical  laxity.     Their  names,  in  order,  were  these,  Leo  XI, 
Paul  V,  Gregory  XV,   Urban  VIII,  Innocent  X,  Alexander  VII,  Clement  IX, 
Clement  X,  Innocent  XI,  Alexander  VIII,  and  Innocent  XII.     Their  orthodoxy 
was  powerfully  supported  by  the  Cardinals  Bellarmin,  Baronius  and  Pex'roi^, 
with  the  bishops  Huetius,  Bossuet,  Fenelon,  Richard  Smith,  and  the  divines 
Petavius,  Tillemont,  Pagi,  Thomassin,  Kellison,  Cressy,  &c.     Nor  were  the  ca- 
nonized saints  of  this  age  fewer  in  number  or  less  illustrious  than  those  of  the 
former,  namely,  St,  Francis  of  Sale;*,  St.  Frances  Chantal,  St.  Camillus,  St.  Fi- 
delis  Martyr,  St.  Vincent  of  Paul,  Szc.     Finally,  the  church  continued  to  b» 
crowded  with  fresh  converts,  in  Peru,  Chili,  Terra  Firma,  Canadj,  Louisiana, 
Mingrelia,  Tartary,  India,  and  many  islands  both  of  Africa  and  Asia.     She  had 
also  the  consolation  of  receiving  into  her  communion  the  several  Patriarchs  of 
Damascus,  Aleppo,  and  Alexandria,  and  also  the  Nestorian  archbishops  of  Cbal- 
dsea  and  Meliapore,  with  their  respective  clergy. 

CENT.  XVIII. 

At  length  we  have  mounted  up  the  apostolic  tree  to  our  own  age.  In  this 
heresy  having  sunk,  for  the  most  part,  into  Socinian  indifference,  and  Jansen- 
ism into  philosophic  infidelity,  this  last  waged  as  cruel  a  war  against  the  Ca- 
tholic church,  [andO  glorious  mark  of  truth!  against  her  alone]  as  Decius  and 
Dioclesian  did  heretofore  :  but  this  has  only  proved  her  internal  strength  of  con- 
stitution, and  the  protection  of  the  God  of  heaven.  The  Pontiffs,  who  hav« 
stood  the  storms  of  this  century,  were  Clement  XI,  Innocent  XIII,  Benedict  XIV, 
Clement  XIII,  Clement  XIV,  Pius  VI,  as  at  the  beginning  of  the  present  cen- 
tury Pius  VII  has  done.  Among  other  modern  supporters  and  ornaments  of  the 
church,  may  be  mentioned  the  Cardinals  Thomasi  and  Quirina,  the  bishops 
LangU'ct,  La  Motte,  Beaumont,  Challoner,  Horuyold,  Wahnesley,  Hay  and 


176  '.etier  XXVIIL 

ed  THE  APOSTOLICAL  SEE,  and  being  the  head  See  and 
centre  of  union  of  the  whole  Cathohc  church,  furnishes  the  first 
claim  to  its  title  of  THE  APOSTOLICAL  CHURCH.    But 
you  also  sec,  in  the  sketch  of  tiiis  mystical  tree,  an  uninterrupt- 
ed series  of  other  bishops,  doctors,  pastors,  saints,  and  pious 
personages,   of  dlHerent   times  and    countries,    through    these 
eighteen  centuries,   who   have,  in  their   several  stations,   kept 
up  the  perpetual  succession,  those  of  one  century  having  been 
the  instructors  of  those  who  succeeded  them  in  the  next,  all  of 
them  following  the  same  two-fold  rule,  Scripture  and  tradition  ; 
all  of  them  acknowledging  the  same  expositor  of  this  rule,  the 
Catholic  churcli,  and  all  of  them  adliering  to  the  main  trunk  or 
centre  of  union,  the  apostolic  See.     Some  of  the  general  coun- 
cils or  synods  likewise  appear,  in  which  the  bishops  from  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  church,  under  the  authority  of  the  Pope,  assem- 
bled, from  time  to  time,  to  define  its  doctrine  and  regidate  its 
discipline.     The  size  of  the  sheet  did  not  admit  of  all  the  coun- 
cils being  exhibited.     Again  you  behold,  in  this  tree,  the  con- 
tinuation of  the  apostolical  work,  the  conversion  of  nations, 
which,  as  it  was  committed  by  Christ  to  tlie  Catholic  church,  so 
it  has  never  been  blessed  by  him  with  success  in  any  hands  but 
in  hers.     This  exclusive  miracle,  in  the  order  of  grace,   like 
those  m  the  order  of  nature,  which  I  treated  of  in  a  former  let- 
ter, is  Itself  a  divine  attestation  on  her  behalf.    Speaking  of  the 
conversion  of  nations,  I  must  not  fail,  dear  sir,  to  remind  your 
society,  that  this  our  country  has  twice  been  reclaimed  from  Pa- 
ganism, and  each  time  by  the  apostolic  labours  of  missionaries, 
sent  hither  by  the  See  of  Rome.     The  first  conversion  took 

t 
Moylan.  Among  the  writers  are  Calmet,  Muratori,  Bergier,  Feller,  Golher, 
Manning,  Hawarden,  and  Alban  Butler;  and  among  the  personages  distinguish- 
ed by  their  piety,  the  Gond  Danphin,  his  sister  Louisa  the  Carmelite  nun,  his 
heroical  daughter  Elizabeth,  his  other  daughter  Clotilda,  -whdse  beatification  it» 
now  in  progress,  as  those  of  bishop  Liguori,  and  I'aul  of  the  cross,  foni.dor  of 
the  Passionists  ;  as  also  P^F\  Surenne,  Nolhac  and  L.  Enfant,  wdth  theJv  fcUow- 
tnartyrs  and  the  venerable  Labre,  6:c.  Nor  has  the  apostolical  work  ol'convert- 
ing  Infidels  been  neglected  liy  the  Catholic  church,  iu  the  midst  of  such  perse- 
•utions.  In  the  early  part  of  the  century,  numberless  souls  were  gainetl  by  Ca- 
tholic preachers  in  the  kingdoms  of  .Madura,  Cochiiichina,  Tonquin,  a!)d  in  the 
empire  of  China,  including  the  peninsula  of  Corf  a.  At  the  same  time  liumerous 
savages  were  civilized  and  baptized  among  the  Hurons,  Miamis,^lllii]ois,  and 
other  tribes  of  North  America.  But  the  most  glorious  conquest,  because  the 
most  difficult  and  most  complete,  was  that  gained  by  the  Jesuits  in  the  interior 
of  South  America  over  the  wild  savages  of  Paraguiiy,  Uraguay  and  Piirona,  to- 
gether with  the  wild  Canisians,  Moxos  and  Chiouites,  who,  after  shedding  the 
blood  of  some  hundreds  of  their  fust  preachers,  at  length  opened  their  hearts  to 
the  mild  and  sweet  truths  of  the  Gospel,  and  became  models  of  piety  and  morali- 
ty, nor  less  so  of  industry,  civil  order,  and  polity. 


Letter  XXJX.  ^^^ 

place  in  the  second  century,  when  Pope  Eleutherius  sentFujra- 
tins  and  Duvianus  for  this  purpose,  to  the  ancient  Britons  or 
Welsh,  under  their  king  or  governor,  Lucius,  asBede  and  other 
historians  relate.  The  second  conversion  was  that  of  our  im- 
mediate ancestors,  the  English  Saxons  and  Angles,  by  St.  Au- 
gustin  and  his  companions,  at  the  end  of  the  sixth  century,  who 
were  sent  from  Rome,  on  this  apostolical  errand,  by  Pope  Gre- 
gory the  Great.  Lastly,  you  see  in  the  present  sketch,  a  series 
of  unhappy  children  of  the  church,  who,  instead  oi  hearing  her 
doctrines,  as  it  was  their  duty  to  do,  have  pretended  to  reform 
them ;  and  thus,  losing  the  vital  influx  of  their  parent  stock, 
have  withered  and  fallen  off  from  it  as  mere  dead  branches. 

I  am,  &£c. 

J.  M. 


LETTER  XXIX. 

To  JAMES  BROWJSr,  Esq.  fyc. 

OK  THE  APOSTOLICITY  OF  THE  CATHOLIC  MimSTRY. 

Dear  Sir, 
In  viewing  the  apostolical  tree,  you  are  to  consider  it  as  re- 
presenting an  uninterrupted  succession  of  pontiffs  and  prelates, 
who  derive  not  barely  their  doctrine,  but  also,  in  a  special  man- 
ner,  their  ministry,  namely  their  holy  orders  and  the  right  or 
jurisdiction  to  exercise  those  orders  in  a  right  line,  from  the 
apostles  of  Jesus  Christ.     In  fact,  the  Catholic  church,  in  all 
past  ages,  has  not  been  more  jealous  of  the  sacred  deposite  of 
orthodox  doctrine,  than  of  the  equally  sacred  deposites  of  legiti- 
mate ordination,  by  bishops  who  themselves  had  been  rightly 
ordained  and  consecrated,  and  of  valid  jurisdiction  or  divine 
mission,  by  which  she  authorizes  her  ministers  to  exercise  their 
respective  functions  in  such  and  such  places,  with  respect  to 
such  and  such  persons,  and  under  such  and  such  conditions,  as 
she,  by  the  depositaries  of  this  jurisdiction,  is  pleased  to  ordain. 
Thus,  my  dear  sir,  every  Catholic  pastor  is  authorized  and  en- 
abled to  address  his  flock  as  follows  :   The  word  of  God  which  I 
announce  to  you,  and  the  holy  sacraments  which  I  dispense  to 
you,  I  am  QUALIFIED  to  announce  and  dispense  by  such  a 
Catholic  bishop,  who  was  consecrated  by  such  another  Catholic 


178  Letter  XXLs.. 

bishop  J  and  so  on,  in  a  series,  which  reaches  to  the  apostles  them' 
selves :  and  I  am  AUTHORIZED  to  preach  and  minister  to  you, 
by  such  a  prelate,  who  received  authority,  for  this  purpose,  from 
the  successor  of  St.  Peter,  in  the  apostolic  See  of  Rome.     Here- 
tofore, during  a  considerable  time,  the  learned  and  conscientious 
divines  of  the  church  of  England  held  the  same  principles,  on 
both  these  points,  that  Catholics  have  ever  held,  and  were  no 
less  firm  in  maintaining  the  divine  right  of  episcopacy  and  the 
ministry  than  we  are.     This  appears  from  the  works  of  one 
who  was,  perhaps,  the  most  profound  and  accurate  amongst 
them,  the  celebrated  Hooker.     He  proves,  at  great  length,  that 
the  ecclesiastical  ministry  is  a  divine  function,  instituted  by  God, 
and  deriving  its  authority  from  God,  "  in  a  very  different  man- 
ner from  that  of  princes  and  magistrates  :"  that  it  is  "  a  wretch- 
ed blindness  not  to  admire  so  great  a  power  as  that,  wliich  the 
clergy  are  endowed  with,  or  to  suppose  that  any  but  God  can 
bestow  it :"  that  "  it  consists  in  a  power  over  the  mystical  body 
of  Christ  by  the  remission  of  sins,  and  over  his  natural  body  in 
the  sacrament,  which  antiquity  doth  call  the  making  of  Chrisfs 
hody."^     He  distinguishes  between  the  power  of  orders  and  the 
authority  of  mission  or  jurisdiction,  on  both  which  points  he  is 
supported  by  the  canons  and  laws  of  the  establishment.     Not 
to  speak  of  prior  laws ;  the  act  of  uniformity,f  provides  that 
no  minister  shall  hold  any  living,  or  officiate  in  any  church, 
who  has  not  received  episcopal  ordination.     It  alsp  requires 
that  he  shall  be  approved  and  licensed  for  his  particular  place 
mid  function.     This  is  also  clear  from  the  form  of  induction  of 
a  clerk  into  any  cure.  J     In  virtue  of  this  system,  wlieu  Episco- 
pacy was  re-established  in   Scotland,  in  the  year   16G2,  four 
Presbyterian  ministers  having  been  appointed  by  the  i  iig  to 
that  office,  the  English  bishops  refused  to  consecrate  tJ.'  wi,  un- 
less they  consented  to  be    previously  ordained    deacoj!>    and 
priests,  thus  renouncing  their  former  ministerial  character,  and 
acknowledging  that  they  had  hitherto  been  mere  la3men.§     In 
like  manner,   on   the   accession   of  king  William,  who   was  a 
Dutch  Calvinist,  to  the  throne,  when  a  commission  of  ten  bi- 
shops and  twenty  divines  was  appointed  to  modify  the  articles 
and  liturgy  of  the  established  church,  for  the  purpose  of  form- 

•  Ecclesiaat.  Politic.  B.  v.  Art.  77.  t  Stat.  13  and  14  Car.  2,  c.  4. 

4:  "  Curam  et  reg^imen  animarum  parochianorum  tibi  commiltimus." 
i  Collier's  Eccl.  Hist.  Vol.  ii.  p.  887.     It  appears  from  the  same  history  that 
four  other  Scotch  ministers,  who  had  formerly  permitted  themselves  to  be  con- 
•ecrated  bishops,  were,  oa  that  account,  excommunicated  and  degraded  by  th« 
l»irk.    Records,  N.  cxiii. 


Letter  XXIX.  I79 

ing  a  coalition  with  the  dissenters,  it  appeared  that  the  most  lax 
among  them,  such  as  Tillotson  and  Burnet,  together  with  chief 
baron  Hales  and  other  lay  lords,  required  that  the  dissenting 
ministers  should,  at  least  be  conditionally  ordained  *  as  beinir 
thus  far  mere  laymen.  In  a  word,  it  is  well  known  to  be  the 
practice  of  the  established  church,  at  the  present  day,  to  ordain 
all  dissenting  Protestant  ministers  of  every  description,  who  go 
over  to  her,  whereas,  she  never  attempts  to  re-ordain  an  apos- 
tate Catholic  priest,  who  offers  himself  to  her  service,  but  is 
satisfied  with  his  taking  the  oaths  prescribed  by  law.f  This 
doctrine  of  the  establishment,  evidently  unchurches,  as  Dr.  Hey- 
lin  expresses  it,  all  other  Protestant  communions ;  as  it  is  an 
established  principle  that,  JVo  ministry  no  church,\  and  with 
equal  evidence,  it  vnchristians  them  also  ;  since  this  church  una- 
nimously resolved,  in  1575,  that  baptism  cannot  be  performed 
by  any  person  but  a  lawful  minister. § 

But  dismissing  these  uncertain  and  wavering  opinions,  we 
know  what  little  account  all  other  Protestants,  except  those  of 
England,  have  made  of  apostolical  succession  and  episcopal 
ordination.  Luther's  principles  on  these  points  are  clear  from 
his  famous  Bull  against  the  FALSELY  CALLED  order  of  bi- 
shops^w  where  he  says,  "  Give  ear  now,  you  bishops,  or  rather 
you  visors  of  the  devil  :  Dr.  Luther  will  read  you  a  Bull  and  a 
Reform,  which  will  not  sound  sweet  in  your  ears.  Dr.  Luther's 
Bull  and  Reform  is  this,  whoever  spend  their  labour,  persons 
and  fortunes,  to  lay  waste  your  episcopacies,  and  to  extinguish 
the  government  of  bishops,  they  are  the  beloved  of  God,  true 
Christians,  and  opposers  of  the  devil's  ordinances.  On  the 
other  hand,  whoever  support  the  government  of  bishops,  and 
willingly  obey  them,  they  are  the  devil's  ministers,"  &tc.  True 
it  is,  that  afterwards,  namely,  in  1542,  this  arch-reformer,  to 

*  Life  of  Tillotson  by  Dr.  Birch,  pp.  42.  176. 

t  Notwithstanding  these  proofs  of  the  doctrine  and  practice  of  the  established 
church,  a  great  proportion  of  her  modern  divines  consent,  at  the  present  day,  to 
sacrifice  all  her  pretensions  to  divine  authority  and  uninterrupted  succession.  It 
has  been  shown  in  The  Letters  to  a  Prebendary,  that  in  the  principles  of  the  cele- 
brated Dr.  Balguy,  a  priest  or  a  bishop  can  jis  well  be  made  by  the  town  crier,  if 
commissioned  by  the  civil  power,  as  by  the  metropolitan.  To  this  system,  Dr. 
Sturges,  Dr.  Hey,  Dr.  Paley,  and  a  crowd  of  other  learned  theologians  subscribe 
their  names.  Even  the  bishop  of  Lincoln,  in  maintaining  Episcopacy  to  be  an 
apostolical  institution,  denies  it  to  be  binding  on  Christians  to  adopt  it :  which, 
in  fact,  is  to  reduce  it  to  a  mere  civil  and  optional  practice.  Elem.  Vol.  ii.  Art. 
23. 

\  "  Ubi  nuUus  est  Sacerdos  nulla  est  Ecclesia."     St.  Jerom,  &c, 

«  Elem.  of  Theol.  Vol.  ii.  p.  471. 

''  Adversus  falso  Nomin.     Tom.  ii.  Jen.  A.  D.  1525. 


180  Letter  XXIX. 

gratify  liis  chict'  patron,  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  took  upon  him- 
self to  consecrate  his  bottle  compniiicn,  Amsdorf,  bishop  of 
Naumbiir£rh  :*  but,  then,  it  is  notorious,  from  the  whole  of  his 
conthut,  that  Luther  set  himself  above  all  law,  and  derided  con- 
sistency and  decency.  Nearly  the  same  may  be  said  of  ano- 
ther later  reformer,  John  Wesley,  who,  professing  himself  to  be 
a  Prestrijtcr  of  the  church  of  England,  pretended  to  ordain 
?.Iessrs.  Whatcoat,  Vesey,  he.  priests,  and  to  consecrate  Dr. 
Coke  n  bishop  /f  With  equal  inconsistency,  the  elders  of  Hern- 
huth  in  Moravia,  profess  to  consecrate  bishops  for  England  and 
other  kinudoms.  On  the  other  hand,  how  averse  the  Calvin- 
ists,  and  other  dissenters,  are  to  the  very  niiine  as  well  as  the 
office  of  bishops,  all  modern  histories,  especially  those  of  En- 
gland a!id  Scotland,  demonstrate.  But,  in  short,  by  whatever 
name,  whether  of  bishops,  priests,  deacons,  or  pastors,  these 
ministers  respectively  call  themselves,  it  is  undeniable,  that  they 
are  all  self-appointed,  or,  at  most,  tliey  derive  their  claim  from 
other  men,  who  themselves  were  self-appointed,  filleen,  sixteen, 
or  seventeen  hundred  years  subsequent  to  the  time  of  the  apos- 
tles. 

The  chief  question  which  remains  to  be  discussed  concerns  the 
ministry  of  the  church  of  England;  namely,  whether  the  first 
Protestant  bishops,  appointed  by  queen  Elizabeth,  when  the  Ca- 
tholic bishops  were  turned  out  of  their  Seer.,  did  or  did  not  re- 
ceive valid  consecration  from  some  other  b-ishop,  who,  himself, 
was  validly  consecrated.^  The  discussion  of  this  question  has 
filled  many  volumes,  the  result  of  \\hich  is,  that  the  orders  are, 
to  say  the  least,  exceedingly  doubtful.  For,  first,  it  is  certain 
that  the  doctrine  of  the  fathers  of  tins  church  v^as  very  loose,  as 
to  the  necessity  of  consecration  and  ordination.  Its  chief 
founder,  Cranmer,  solemnly  subscribed  his  name  to  the  position, 
that  princes  ar.d  governors,  no  less  tlian  bishops,  can  make 
priests,  ;uid  that  no  consecration  is  n|3poiiUcd  by  Scripture  to 
n)akc  a  bishop  or  priest. t  In  like  manner,  Knrlow,  on  the  va- 
lidity of  whose  consecration  that  of  JMalhew  Parker  and  of  all 
succeeding  Anglican  bishops  chieliy  rests,  preached  openly  that 


•  Rlcubn,  Comment.  L.  14.  f 

t  Dr.  \'.'hiteh'':\d's  Life  of  Charles  and  John  '\^V'cley.  It  appenrs  that  Charles 
■waa  horrif'ly  «(i'nt1rili/eil  at  this  stf-p  of  his  l.rotlipr' Jo'nii,  and  that  a  lasting 
schism  among  Ine  Wf-lryiMi  >!clhoJiit«  whs  the  ronsoquenreof  it. 

X  Hurnf't's  IH«f.  of  I'riortn.  Record?,  H.  lii,  N.  VM.  Soc  also  his  Rec.  Part 
ii.  N.  t»,  by  whirh  it  ap{)r:irs  that  Cranmer  and  fho  otlier  romp'iyinj:^  prelates  took 
out  fresh  romini  sions  on  thf-  drtilli  of  llcfry  ^■|[^  from  Tdward  VI,  to  govern 
thfiir  fhoctes,  durante  bitifihu  iti;.  like  mere  civil  olliccrs. 


Letter  XXIX.  181 

the  king's  appointment,  without  any  orders  whatsoever,  suffices 
to  make  a  bishop.*  This  doctrine  seems  to  have  been  broach- 
ed by  him  to  meet  the  objection  that  he  himself  had  never  been 
consecrated  :  in  fact,  the  record  of  such  a  transaction  has  been 
hunted  for  in  vain,  during  these  two  hundred  years.  Secondly, 
it  is  evident,  from  the  books  of  controversy,  still  extant,  that  the 
Catholic  doctors,  Harding,  Bristow,  Stapleton,  and  Cardinal 
Allen,  who  had  been  fellow-students  and  intimately  acquainted 
with  the  first  Protestant  bishops,  under  Elizabeth,  and  particu- 
larly with  Jewel,  bishop  of  Sarum,  and  Home,  bishop  of  Win- 
ton,  constantly  reproached  them,  in  the  most  pointed  terms, 
that  they  never  had  been  consecrated  at  all,  and  that  the  latter, 
in  their  voluminous  replies,  never  accepted  of  the  challenge  or 
refuted  the  charge,  otherwise  than  by  ridiculing  the  Catholic 
consecration.  Thirdly,  it  appears  that  after  an  interval  of  fifty 
years  from  the  beginning  of  the  controversy,  namely  in  the  year 
1613,  when  Mason,  chaplain  to  archbishop  Abbot,  published  a 
work,  referring  to  an  alleged  Register  at  Lambeth,  of  archbi- 
shop  Parker's  consecration  by  Barlow,  assisted  by  Coverdale 
and  others,  the  learned  Catholics  universally  exclaimed  that  the 
Register  was  a  forgery,  unheard  of  till  that  date,  and  asserted, 
among  other  arguments,  that,  admitting  it  to  be  true,  it  was  of 
no  avail,  as  the  pretended  consecrator  of  Parker,  though  he  had 
sat  in  several  Sees,  had  not  himself  been  consecrated  for  any  of 
them.f 

These,  however,  are  not  the  only  exceptions  which  Catholic 
divines  have  taken  to  the  ministerial  orders  of  the  church  of 
England.  They  have  argued,  in  particular,  against  the  form  of 
them,  as  theologians  term  it;  in  fact,  according  to  the  ordinal 
of  Edward  VI,  restored  by  Elizabeth,  priests  were  ordained  by 
the  power  o^ forgiving  sins^X  without  any  power  of  offering  up 
sacrifice,  in  which  the  essence  of  the  sacerdotium,  or  priesthood 
consists ;  and,  according  to  the  same  ordinal,  bishops  were 
consecrated  without  the  communication  of  any  fresh  power 
whatsoever,  or  even  the  mention  of  episcopacy,  by  ^form  which 
might  be  used  to  a  child,  when  confirmed  or  baptized.^   This 

•  Collier's  Eccl.  Hist.  Vol.ii.  p.  135. 

t  Richardson,  in  his  notes  on  Godwin's  Commentary,  is  forced  to  confess  as 
follows:  "  Dies  consecrationis  ejus  (Barlow)  nondum  apparet."  p.  642. 

:{:  "  Receive  the  Holy  Ghost :  whose  sins  thou  dost  forgive,  they  are  forgiven; 
and  whose  sins  thou  dost  retain,  they  are  retained:  and  be  thou  a  faithful  dis- 
penser of  the  word  of  God,  and  of  his  Holy  Sacraments."  Bishop  Sparrow's 
Collection,  p.  158. 

i  ''  I'ake  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  remember  that  thou  stir  up  the  grace  of  God, 
which  is  in  thee  by  the  imposition  of  hands." — Ibid.  p.  164. 


^ 


182  Letter  XXIX. 

was  agreeable  to  the  maxims  of  the  principal  author  of  that 
ordinal,  Crannier,  who  solemnly  decided  that  "bishops  and 
prlt  sts  were  no  two  thinij^s,  but  one  and  the  same  office."*  On 
this  subject  our  controvertists  urge,  not  only  the  authority  of  all 
tiie  Jiatin  and  Greek  ordinals,  but  also  the  confession  of  the 
above-mentioned  Protestant  divine,  Mason,  who  says,  with  evi- 
dent truth, ''  Not  every  form  of  words  will  serve  for  this  institu- 
tion (conveying  orders)  but  such  as  are  significant  of  the  power 
conveyed  by  the  order."f  In  short,  these  objections  were  so 
)werVuily  urged  by  our  divines.  Dr.  Chanipney,  J.  Lewgar,  S. 
.  B.J  and  others,  that  ahnost  immediately  after  the  last  named 
had  published  his  work  containing  them,  called  Erasius  Senior, 
namely,  in  1662,  the  convocation,  being  assembled,  it  altered 
the  form  of  ordaining  priests  and  consecrating  bishops,  in  order 
to  obviate  these  objections. §  But  admitting  that  these  altera- 
tions are  sufficient  to  obviate  all  the  objections  of  our  divines  to 
the  ordinal,  which  they  arc  not,  they  came  above  a  hundred 
years  too  late  for  their  intended  purpose;  so  that  if  the  priests 
and  bishops  of  Edward's  and  Elizabeth's  reigns  were  invalidly 
ordained  and  consecrated,  so  must  those  of  Charles  11. 's  reign, 
and  their  successors,  have  been  also. 

However  long  I  have  dwelt  on  this  subject,  it  is  not  yet  ex- 
hausted :  the  case  is,  there  is  the  same  necessity  of  an  apostoli- 
cal succession  of  mission  or  authority,  to  execute  the  functions 
of  holy  orders,  as  there  is  of  the  hoi}-  orders  themselves.  This 
mission,  or  authority,  was  imparted  by  Christ  to  his  apostles, 
when  he  said  to  them,  ,j^s  the  Father  hath  sent  me,  I  also  send 
you,  Mat.  XX.  21,  and  of  this  St.  Paul  also  speaks,  where  he 
says  of  the  apostles,  How  can  they  preach  unless  they  are  sentl 
Rom.  X.  15.  I  believe,  sir,  that  no  regular  Protestant  church, 
or  society,  admits  its  minister,  to  have,  by  their  ordination  or 
appointment,  unlimited  authority  in  every  place  and  congrega- 
tion: certain  it  is,  from  the  ordinal  and  articles  of  the  establish- 

•  Biirnot^  Hist,  of  Reform,  vol.  i.  Record,  b.  iii.  n.  21,  quest.  10. 

t   Il.id.  n.  ii.  r.  16. 

^  Lowgrnr  was  the  friend  of  Chillingworth,  and  by  him  converted  to  the  Ca- 
tholic fiith,  wliich,  liowover,  he  refused  to  abandon,  when  tlie  latter  relapsed 
into  r.atitiiilinariaiiiMn. 

4  The  f-.rni  nfonlainin;?  a  priest  was  thus  altered  :  "  Receive  the|TToly  Ghost 
fortheofTiip  rtiid  work  of  a  j)ric5t  in  the  cliumh  of  God,  now  committed  to  thee 
by  the  impo'ition  of  our  hands:  Whose  sins  thou  shalt  forgive,  they  are  for- 
given," kr.—'V\\o  form  of  consecratinj^  a  bishop  was  thus  en];ir^ed  :  "  Receive 
tJic  Holy  Ghost  for  the  ofTire  and  work  of  a  bishop  in  the  churcli  of  God,  now 
committed  unto  thee  by  the  imposition  of  our  hands,  in  the  name  of  the  Father, 
and  of  tlip  Son,  an.)  of  tho  Holy  Ghost;  and  remember,  that  thou  stir  up  the 
grace  of  (Jod,  M'hich  is  in  ihcc.'' 


Letter  XXIX,  183 

ed  church,  that  she  confines  the  jurisdiction  of  her  ministers  to 
**  the  congregation  to  which  they  shall  be  appointed."*  Con- 
formably to  this,  Dr.  Berkley  teaches,  that  "  a  defect  in  the 
mission  of  the  ministry,  invalidates  the  sacraments,  aflects  the 
purity  of  public  worship,  and  therefore  deserves  to  be  investi- 
gated by  every  sincere  Christian."!  To  this  archdeacon 
Daubeny  adds,  that  "  Regular  mission  only  subsists  in  the 
churches  which  have  preserved  apostolical  succession."  I 
moreover  believe  that  in  all  Protestant  societies  the  ministers 
are  persuaded  that  the  authority  by  which  they  preach  and  per 
form  their  functions  is,  some  how  or  another,  divine.  But,  on 
this  head,  I  must  observe  to  you,  dear  sir,  and  your  society, 
that  there  are  only  two  ways  by  which  divine  mission  or  au- 
thority can  be  proved  or  communicated  5  the  one  ordinary,  the 
other  extraordinary.  The  former  takes  place  when  this  au- 
tliority  is  transmitted  in  regular  succession  from  those  who  ori- 
ginally received  it  from  God ;  the  other,  when  the  Almighty 
interposes,  in  an  extraordinary  manner,  and  immediately  com- 
missions certain  individuals  to  make  known  his  will  to  men. 
The  latter  mode  evidently  requires  indisputable  miracles  to  at- 
test it ;  and  accordingly  Moses  and  our  Saviour  Christ,  who 
were  sent  in  this  manner,  constantly  appealed  to  the  prodigies 
they  wrought  in  proof  of  their  divine  mission.  Hence,  even 
Luther,  when  Muncer,  Storck,  and  their  followers,  the  Ana- 
baptists, spread  their  errors  and  devastations  through  Lower 
Germany,  counselled  the  magistrates  to  put  these  questions  to 
them,  (not  reflecting  that  the  questions  were  as  applicable  to 
himself  as  to  Muncer,)  '^  Who  conferred  upon  you  the  office  of 
preaching  ?  And  who  commissioned  you  to  preach  ?  If  they 
answer,  God^  then  let  the  magistrates  say,  prove  this  to  us  by 
some  evident  miracle :  for  so  God  makes  known  his  will,  when 
he  changes  the  institutions,  which  he  had  before  established. "J 
Should  this  advice  of  the  first  reformer  to  the  magistrates  be 
followed  in  this  age  and  country,  what  swarms  of  sermonizers 
.  and  expounders  of  the  Bible  would  be  reduced  to  silence  !  For, 
on  one  hand,  it  is  notorious,  that  they  are  self-appointed  pro- 
phets, who  run  without  being  sent ;  or,  if  they  pretend  to  a 
commission,  they  derive  it  from  other  men,  who  themselves  had 
received  none,  and  who  did  not  so  much  as  claim  any,  by  regu^ 
lar  succession  from  the  apostles.  Such  was  Luther  himself; 
such  also  were  Zuinglius,  Calvin,  Muncer,  Menno,  Jolrn  Knox, 

•  Article  23.     Form  of  ordering  priests  ap't  deacons, 

t  Berm.  at  Consecr,  of  bishop  Home.  t  ''^''■'-l^n.  n«  stat=  Reii».  1,  ▼ 


184  Letter  XXIX, 

George  Fox,  Zlnzendorf,  Wesley,  Whitfield,  and  Swedenborg. 
None  of  these  preachers,  as  I  have  signified,  so  much  as  pre- 
tended to  have  received  their  mission  from  Christ  in  the  ordir- 
nary  ivay,  by  uninterrupted  succession  from  the  apostles.  On 
the  otlier  hand,  they  were  so  far  from  undertaking  to  work  real 
miracles,  by  way  of  proving  they  have  received  an  extraordi- 
nary mission  from  God,t\mt,  as  Erasmus  reproached  them,  they 
could  not  so  much  as  cure  a  lame  horse,  in  proof  of  their  divine 
legation. 

Should  your  friend,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Clark,  see  this  letter,  he 
will  doubtless  exclaim,  that,  whatever  may  be  the  case  with 
dissenters,  the  church  of  England,  at  least,  has  received  her 
mission  and  authority,  together  with  her  orders,  by  regular 
succession  from  the  apostles,  through  the  Catholic  bishops,  in 
the  ordinary  way.     In  fact,  this  is  plainly  asserted  by  the  bi- 
shop of  Lincoln.*     But  take  notice,  dear  sir,  that  though  we 
were  to  admit  of  an  apostolical  succession  of  orders  in  the  esta- 
blished church,  we  never  could  admit  of  an  apostolical  succes- 
sion of  mission,  jurisdiction,  or  right  to  exercise  those  orders 
in  that  church  :  nor  can  its  clergy,  with  any  consistency,  lay 
the  least  claim  to  it.     For,  first,  if  the  Catholic  church,  that  is 
to   say,    its    "  Laity  and  clergy,  all  sects  and  degrees,  were 
drowned  in  abominable  idolatry,  most  detested  of  God  and 
damnable  to  man,  for  the  space  of  eight  hundred  years,"  as  the 
KOiuilies  affirm.!  how  could  she  retain  this  divine  mission  and 
jurisdiction,  all  this  time,  and  employ  them  in  commissioning 
her  clergy  all  this  time  to  preach  up  this  *'  detestable  idola- 
try ?"     Again,  was  it  possible  for  the  Catholic  church  to  give 
jurisdiction  and  authority,  for  example,  to  archbishop  Parker, 
and  t!ie  bishops  Jewel  and  Home,  to  preach  against  herself? 
Did  ever  any  insurgents  against  an  established  government,  ex- 
cept the  regicides  in  the  grand  rebellion,  claim  authority  from  that 
very  government  to  fight  against  it,  and  destroy  it  ?   In  a  word,  we 
perfectly  well  know,  from  history,  that  the  first  English  Protest- 
ants did  not  profess,  any  more  than  foreign  Protestants,  to  derive 
any  mission  or  authority  whatsoever  from  the  apostles,  through 
the  existing  Catholic  church.     Those  of  Henry's  reign  preach- 
ed and  ministered  in  defiance  of  all  authority,  ecclesiastical  and 
civil.  J     Their  successors  in  the  reign  of  Edward  and^EHzabeth 
claimed  their  whole  right  and  mission  to  preach  and  to  minis- 

•  Elena,  of  Theol.  vol.  ii.  p.  400.        t  Against  the  Perils  of  Idolatry,  P.  iii 
X  Collier's  Hist.  vol.  ii.  p.  81. 


Letter  XXIX.  165 

ter  from  the  civil  power  only.*  This  latter  point  is  demonstra- 
tively evident  from  the  act  and  the  oath  of  supremacy,  and 
from  the  homage  of  the  archbishops  and  bishops  to  the  said 
Elizabeth,  in  which  the  prelate  elect  "  acknowledges  and  con- 
fesses, that  he  holds  his  bishopric,  as  well  in  spirituals  as  in 
temporals,  from  her  alone  and  the  crown  ro}  al."  The  same 
thing  is  clear  from  a  series  of  royal  ordinances  respecting  the 
clergy  in  matters  purely  spiritual,  such  as  the  pronouncing  on 
doctrine^  the  prohibition  of  prophesying,  the  inhibition  of  all 
preaching,  the  giving  and  suspending  of  spiritual  faculties,  he. 
Now ,  though  I  sincerely  and  cheerfully  ascribe  to  my  sovereign 
all  the  temporal  and  civil  power,  jurisdiction,  rights,  and  au- 
thority, which  the  constitution  and  laws  ascribe  to  him,  I  can- 
not believe  that  Christ  appointed  any  temporal  prince  to  feed 
his  mystical  flock,  or  any  part  of  it,  or  to  exercise  the  power  of 
the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  at  his  discretion.  It  was  fore- 
told by  bishop  Fisher  in  Parliament,  that  the  royal  ecclesiasti- 
cal supremacy,  if  once  acknowledged,  might  pass  to  a  child  or 
to  a  woman, f  as,  in  fact,  it  soon  did  to  each  of  them.  It  was 
afterwards  transferred,  with  the  crown  itself,  to  a  foreign  Cal- 
vinist,  and  might  have  been  settled,  by  a  lay  assembly,  on  a 
Mahometan.  All,  however,  that  is  necessary  for  me  here  to 
remark  is,  that  the  acknowledgment  of  a  royal  ecclesiastical 
supremacy  "  in  all  spiritual  and  ecclesiastical  things  or 
causes, "J  (as  when  the  question  is,  who  shall  preach,  baptize, 
&c.  and  who  shall  not;  what  is  sound  doctrine,  and  what  is  not,) 
is  decidedly  a  renunciation  of  Christ's  commission  given  to  his 
apostles,  and  preserved  by  their  successors  in  the  Catholic 
apostolic  church.  Hence  it  clearly  appears  that  there  is  and 
can  be  no  apostoliccd  succession  of  ministry  in  the  established 
church  more  than  in  the  other  congregations  or  societies  of 
Protestants.  All  their  preaching  and  ministering,  in  their 
several  degrees,  is  performed  by  mere  human  authority.^  On 
the  other  hand,  not  a  sermon  is  preached,  nor  a  child  baptized, 
nor  a  penitent  absolved,  nor  a  priest  ordained,  nor  a  bishop 


*  Archbishop  Abbot  having  incurred  suspension  by  the  canon  law,  for  acci- 
dentally shooting  a  man,  a  royal  commission  was  issued  to  restore  him.  On  ano- 
ther occasion  he  was  suspended  by  the  king  himself,  for  refusing  to  license  a 
book.  In  Elizabeth's  reign,  the  bishops  approved  o(  prophesying,  as  it  was  called, 
the  queen  disapproved  of  it,  and  she  obliged  them  to  condemn  it. 

t  See  his  Life  by  Dr.  Bailey  :  also  Dodd's  Eccles.  Hist.  vol.  i. 

i  Oath  of  supremacy.  Homage  of  bishops,  &c. 

^  It  is  curious  to  see  in  queen  Elizabeth's  Injunctions,  and  in  the  37th  Article, 
the  disclaimer  of  her  "  actually  ministeri7ig  the  Word  and  the  Sacrament.''''  The 
question  was  not  about  this,  but  about  the  jurisdiction  or  mission  of  the  ministry. 

2  A 


186  Lttter  XXX. 

consecrated,  throughout  the  whole  extent  of  the  Catholic 
church,  without  the  minister  of  such  function  being  able  to  show 
his  authority  from  Christ  for  what  he  does,  in  the  commission 
of  Christ  to  his  apostles :  All  power  in  heaven  and  on  earth  is 
given  to  me :  Go  therefore,  teach  all  nations,  baptizing  them,  ^c. 
Mat.  xxviii.  19;  and  without  being  able  to  prove  his  claim  to 
that  commission  of  Christ,  by  producing  the  table  of  his  unin- 
terrupted succession  from  the  apostles.  I  will  not  detain  you 
by  entering  into  a  comparison,  in  a  religious  point  of  view,  be- 
tween a  ministry,  which  officiates  by  divine  authority,  and  others 
which  act  by  mere  human  authority;  but  shall  conclude  this 
subject  by  putting  it  to  the  good  sense  and  candour  of  your  so- 
ciety, whether,  from  all  that  has  been  said,  it  is  not  as  evident, 
which,  among  the  different  communions,  is  THE  APOSTOLIC 
CHURCH  we  profess  to  believe  in,  as  which  is  THE  CA- 
THOLIC CHURCH.? 

I  am,  &c. 

J.M. 


LETTER  XXX. 

To  JAMES  BROWN,  Esq. 

OBJECTIONS  ANSWERED. 

Dear  Sir, 
I  FIND  that  your  visiter,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Clark,  had  not  left 
you  at  the  latter  end  of  last  week  ;  smce  it  appears,  by  a  letter 
which  I  have  received  from  him,  that  he  had  seen  my  two  last 
letters,  addressed  to  you  at  New  Cottage.  He  is  much  dis- 
pleased with  their  contents,  which  I  am  not  surprised  at ;  and 
he  uses  some  harsh  expressions  against  them  and  their  author, 
of  which  I  do  not  complain,  as  he  was  not  a  party  to  the  agree- 
ment entered  into  at  the  bei]finning  of  our  correspondence,  by 
the  tenor  of  wliich  I  was  left  at  ifull  liberty  to  follow  up  my 
arguments  to  wluitever  lengtlis  they  might  conduct  lile,  without 
any  person  of  the  society  being  offended  with  me  on  that  ac- 
count. I  shall  pass  over  the  passages  in  the  letter  wliich  seem 
to  have  been  dictated  by  too  warm  a  feeling,  and  shall  confine 
my  answer  to  those  wliich  contain  something  like  argument 
against  what  I  have  advanced. 


Letter  XXX.  187 

The  Reverend  gentleman,  then,  objects  against  the  claim  of 
our  pontiffs  to  the  apostolic  succession;  that  in  different  ages 
this  succession  has  been  interrupted,  by  the  contentions  of  rival 
Popes  ;  and  that  the  lives  of  many  of  them  have  been  so  crimi- 
nal, that  according  to   my  own   argument,  as  he  says,  it  is  in- 
credible that  such  pontiffs  should  have  been  able  to  preserve 
and  convey  the  commission  and  authority  given  by  Christ  to 
his  apostles.     I  grant,  sir,  that,   from  the  various  commotions 
and  accidents  to  which  all  sublunary  things  are  subject,  ther*- 
have  been  several  vacancies,  or  interregnums  in  the  Papacy ; 
but  none  of  them  have  been  of  such  a  lengthened  duration  as  to 
prevent  a  moral  continuation  of  the  Popedom,  or  to  hinder  the 
execution  of  the  important  offices  annexed  to  it.     I  grant  also, 
that  there  have  been  rival  Popes  and  unhappy  schisms  in  the 
church,  particularly  one  great  schism,  at  the  end  of  the  four- 
teenth and  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century :  still  the  true 
Pope  was  always  clearly  discernible  at  the  times  we  are  speak- 
ing of,  and  in  the  end  was  acknowledged  even  by  his  oppo- 
nents.   Lastl}^,  I  grant  that  a  few  of  the  Popes,  perhaps  a  tenth 
part  of  the  whole  number,  swerving  from  the  example  of  the 
rest,  have,  by  ihe'iv personal  vices,  disgraced  their  holy  station  : 
but  even  these  Popes  always  fulfilled  their  public  duties  to  th« 
church  by  maintaining  the  apostolical  doctrine,  moral  as  well  an 
speculative,  the  apostolical  orders,  and  the  apostolical  mission; 
so  that  their  misconduct  chiefly  injured  their  own  souls,  and  did 
not  essentially  affect  the  church.     But  if  what  the  Homihes 
afHrm  were  true,  that  the  whole  church  had  been  "  drowned  in 
idolatry  for  eight  hundred  years,"  she  must  have  taught  and 
commissioned  all  those,  whom  she  ordained  to  teach  this  ho^ 
rible  apostasy,  which  she  never  could  have  done,  and  at  the 
same  time  retained  Christ's  commission  and  authority  to  teach 
all  nations  the  Gospel.    This  demonstrates  the  inconsistency  of 
those  clergymen  of  the  establishment,  who  accuse  the  Catholic 
church  of  apostasy  and  idolatry,  and  at  the  same  time  boast  of 
having  received,  through  her,  a  spiritual  jurisdiction  and  mini8»7~ 
try  from  Jesus  Christ. 

Your  visiter  next  expatiates,  in  triumphant  strains,  on  the  ex- 
ploded fable  of  Pope  Joan ;  for  exploded  it  certainly  may  he 
termed,  when  such  men  as  the  Calvinist  minister  Blondel,  and 
the  infidel  Bayle,  have  abandoned  and  refuted  it.  But  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  fable  themselves  sufficiently  refute  it.  Ac- 
cording to  these,  in  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century,  an  Engliik 


188  Letter  XXX. 

woman  J  born  at  Mentz,  in  Germany,*  studied  philosophy  at 

•Athens,  wliere  there  was  no  school  of  philosophy  in  the  ninth 

century,  more  than  there  is  now,  and  taught  divinity  at  Rome, 

It  is  pretended  that,  being  elected  Pope,  on  the  death  of  Leo 

IV  in  S55,  she  was  delivered  of  a  child,  as  she  was  walking  in 

a  solemn  procession  near  the  Colliseum,  and  died  on  the  spot ; 

and  moreover,  that  astahie  o/Aer  was  there  erected  in  memory 

of  the    disgraceful   event!     There  have   been    great   debates 

among  the  learned  concerning  the  first  author  of  this  absurd 

tale,  and  concerning  the  interpolations  in  the  copies  of  the  first 

chronicles  which  mention  it.f  At  all  events,  it  was  never  heard 

of  for  more  than  two  hundred  years  after  the  period  in  question  : 

and  in  the  mean  time,  we  are  assured,  from  the  genuine  works 

of  contemporary  writers  and   distinguished  prelates,    some   of 

whom  then  resided  at  Rome,  such  as  Anastasius  the  librarian, 

Luitprand,  Hincmar,  archbishop  of  Rheims,  Photius  of  C.  P. 

Lupis  Ferrar,  &:c.  that  Benedict  III.  was  canonically  elected 

Pope  in  the  said  year  855,  only  three  days  after  the  death  of 

Leo  IV,  which  evidently  leaves  no  interval  for  the  pontificate 

of  the  fabulous  Joan. 

From  the  warfare  of  attack,  my  Reverend  antagonist 
passes  to  that  of  defence,  as  he  terms  it.  In  this  he  heavily 
complains  of  my  not  having  done  justice  to  the  Protestants, 
particularly  in  the  article  of  foreign  missions.  On  this  head, 
he  enumerates  the  different  societies,  existing  in  this*  country, 
for  carrying  them  on,  and  the  large  sums  of  money  which  they 
annually  raise  for  this  purpose.  The  societies,  I  learn  from 
him,  are  the  following:  1st,  the  Society  for  promoting  Chris- 
tian Knowledge,  called  the  Bartlet  Building  Society,  which, 
though  strictly  of  the  Establishment,  employs  missionaries  in 
India  to  the  number  of  six,  all  Germans,  and  it  should  seem,  all 
Lutherans.  2dly,  There  is  the  Society  for  propagating  Chris- 
tianity in  the  English  colonies ;  but  I  hear  nothing  of  its  do- 
ings. 3dly,  There  is  another  for  the  conversion  of  negro 
slaves,  of  which  I  can  only  say,  ditto.  4thly,  There  is  another 
for  sending  missionaries  to  Africa  and  the  East,  concerning 
which  we  are  equally  left  in  the  dark.  5thly,  There  is  the 
London  Missionary  Society,  which  sent  out  the  ship  PufT,  with 
certain  preachers  and  their  wives,  to  Otaheite,  Tongabatoo,  and 
the  Marquesas,   and  published  a  journal  of  the  voyage,  by 

•  Ita  Pseudo  Marti  nus  PolonU8,  kc. 

i  See  Breviarium  Hi3torico--Chronologico— criticum  Pontif.  Roman,  stod^ 
IL  F.  Pagi,  torn.  ii.  p.  72. 


Letter  XXX.  189 

whkh  it  appears  that  they  are  strict  Calvinists,  and  Indepen- 
dents. 6thly,  The  Edinburgh  Missionary  Society  fraternizes 
with  the  last  mentioned.  7thly,  There  is  an  Arminian  Mission- 
ary Society  under  Dr.  Coke,  the  head  of  the  Wesleyan  Method- 
ists. 8thly,  There  is  a  Moravian  Missionary  Society,  which 
appears  more  active  than  any  others,  particularly  at  the  Cape, 
and  in  Greenland  and  Surinam.  To  these,  your  visiter  says, 
must  be  added,  the  Hibernian  Society  for  diffusing  Christian 
knowledge  in  Ireland ;  as  also,  and  still  more  particularly,  the 
Bible  Society,  with  all  its  numerous  ramifications.  Of  this 
last  named,  he  speaks  glorious  things,  foretelling  that  it  will,  in 
its  progress,  purify  the  world  from  infidelity  and  wickedness. 

In  answer  to  what  has  been  stated,  I  have  to  mention  several 
marked  differences  between  the  Protestant  and  the  Catholic 
missionaries.     The  former  preached  various   discordant  reli* 
gions  ;  for  what  religions  can  be  more  opposite  than  the  Calvin- 
istic  and  the  Arminian  ?     And  how  indignant  would  a  church- 
man feel,  if  I  were  to  charge  him  with  the  impiety  and  obscen- 
ity of  Zinzendorf  and  his  Moravians  ?     The  very  preachers  of 
the  same  sect,  on  board  of  the  Duff,  had  not  agreed  upon  the 
creed  they  were  to  teach,  when  they  were  within  a  few  days 
sail  of  Otaheite.*     Whereas  the  Catholic  missionaries,  whether 
Italians,  French,  Portuguese,  or  Spaniards,  taught  and  planted 
precisely  the  same  religion  in  the  opposite  extremities  of  the 
globe.     Secondly,  the  envoys  of  those  societies  had  no  com- 
mission or  authority  to  preach,  but  what  they  derived  from  the 
men  and  women,  who  contributed  money  to  pay  for  their  voy- 
ages and  accommodations.     I  have  not  sent  these  prophets,  says 
the  Lord,  yet  they  ran;  I  have  not  spoken  to  them,  yet  they 
prophesied,  Jer.  xxiii.  21.     On  the  other  hand,  the  apostolical 
men,  who,  in  ancient  and  in  modern  times,  have  converted  the 
nations  of  the  earth,  all  derived  their  mission  and  authority 
from  the  centre  of  the  apostolic  tree,  the  See  of  Peter.    Third- 
ly, I  cannot   but  remark  the  striking  difference  between  the 
Protestant  and  the  Catholic  missionaries,  with  respect  to  their 
qualifications  and  method  of  proceeding.     The  former  were, 
for  the  most  part,  mechanics  and  laymen,  of  tlie  lowest  order, 
without  any  learning  infused  or  acquired,  beyond  what  they 
could  pick  up  from  the  English  translation  of  the  Bible ;  they 
were  frequently  incumbered  with  wives  and  children,  and  arm- 


•  "  By  the  middle  of  January,  the  Committee  of  eight  (among  the  30  mission«. 
dries)  had  nearly  finished  the  articles  of/aiih.  Two  of  the  number  diss6Qt«d| 
but  gave  in." — Journal  of  the  Duff. 


190  Letter  XXX 

cd  with  muskets  and  bayonets,  to  kill  those  whom  they  could 
not  convert.*  Whereas  the  Catholic  missionaries  have  always 
been  priests,  or  ascetics,  trained  to  literature  and  religious  ex* 
ercises,  men  of  continency  and  self-denial,  who  have  had  no 
other  defence  than  their  breviary  and  crucifix,  no  other  weapon 
than  the  sword  of  the  sjnrit,  which  is  the  word  of  God,  Ephes. 
vi.  17.  Fourthly,  I  do  not  find  any  portion  of  that  lively  faith 
and  heroical  constancy,  in  braving  poverty,  torments,  and 
death,  for  the  Gospel,  among  the  few  Protestant  converts,  or 
even  among  their  preachers,  which  have  so  frequently  illustrat- 
ed the  different  Catholic  missions.  Indeed,  I  have  not  heard 
of  a  single  martyr  of  any  kind,  in  Asia,  Africa,  or  America, 
who  can  be  considered  as  the  fruit  of  the  above-named  societies, 
or  of  any  other  Protestant  mission  whatsoever.  On  the  other 
hand,  few  are  the  countries  in  which  the  Christian  religion  has 
been  planted  by  Catholic  priests,  without  being  watered  with 
some  of  their  own  blood  and  of  that  of  their  converts.  To  say 
nothing  of  the  martyrs  of  a  late  date  in  the  Cathoiic  liiissions 
of  Turkey,  Abyssinia,  Siam,  Tonquin,  Cochinchina,  &:c.,  there 
has  been  an  almost  continual  persecution  of  the  Catholic*  in  the 
empire  of  China,  for  about  a  hundred  years  past,  whlcb,  be- 
sides confessors  of  the  faith,  who  have  endured  various  tor- 
tures, has  produced  a  very  great  number  of  mart3'rs,  native 
Chinese  as  well  as  Europeans ;  laity  as  well  as  priests  and  bi- 
shops.f  Within  these  two  years,J  the  wonderful  apo^le  of  the 
great  Peninsula  of  Corea,  to  the  east  of  China,  James  Ly,  with 
as  many  as  one  hundred  of  his  converts,  has  suffered  death 
for  the  faith.  In  the  islands  of  Japan,  the  anti -christian  perse- 
cution, excited  by  the  envy  and  avarice  of  the  Dutch,  raged 
with  a  fury  unexampled  in  the  records  of  Pagan  l?ome.  It 
began  with  the  crucifixion  of  twenty-six  martyrs,  nii  st  of  them 
missionaries.  It  then  proceeded  to  other  more  horribJe  martyr- 
doms, and  it  concluded  with  putting  to  death  as  many  as  eleven 


•  The  eighteen  preachers  who  remained  at  Otaheite  "  took  up  arms  bi/  way 
of  precaution.'''' — Ibid.  It  appears,  from  subsequent  accounts,  that  the  preachers 
made  use  of  their  arms,  to  protect  their  wives  from  the  men  whom  they  came  to 
convert.  Of  the  nine  preachers  destined  for  Tor.gabatoo,  six  were  for  carrying 
fire  arms  on  shore,  and  three  against  it. — Journal.  « 

t  Hist,  de  TEglise  par  Berault  Bercastel,  torn.  22,  23.  Butler's  Lives  of  the 
Saints,  Fel).  5.     Mem.  Ecclcs.  pour  le  18  Si('c. 

X  Namely,  in  1801.  While  this  work  is  in  the  press,  we  receive  an  account 
of  the  martyrdom  of  Mgr.  Dufresse,  bishop  of  Tabraca,  and  Vicar  apostolic  of 
Sutrhuen,  in  China,  wlio  was  beliended  there  Sept.  14,  1815,  and  of  F.  J.  de 
^Vior,  missionary  in  Chiansi.  who.  after  various  torments,  was  strangled,  Feb. 
13,  lOlG. 


Letter  XXX.  191 

hundred  thousand  Christians.*  Nor  were  those  numerous  and 
splendid  victories  of  the  Gospel  in  the  provinces  of  South 
America  achieved  without  torrents  of  Catholic  blood.  Many 
of  the  first  preachers  were  slauc^htered  by  the  savages  to  whom 
they  announced  the  Gospel,  and  not  unfrequently  devoured  by 
them,  as  was  the  case  with  the  first  bishop  of  Brazil.  In  the 
last  place,  the  Protestant  missions  have  never  been  attended 
with  any  great  success.  Those  heretofore  carried  on  by  the 
Dutch,  French,  and  American  Calvinists,  seemed  to  have  been 
more  levelled  at  the  destruction  of  the  Catholic  missions,  than 
at  the  conversion  of  the  Pagans. f  In  later  times,  the  zealous 
Wesley  went  on  a  mission  to  convert  the  savages  of  Georgia, 
but  returned  without  making  one  proselyte.  His  companion 
Whitfield  afterwards  went  to  the  same  country  on  the  same  er- 
rand, but  returned  without  any  greater  success.  Of  the  mis- 
sionaries who  went  out  in  the  Dufi',  those  who  were  left  at  the 
Friendly  Islands  and  the  Marquesas  abandoned  their  posts  in 
despair,  as  did  eleven  of  the  eighteen  left  at  Otaheite.  The 
remaining  seven  had  not,  in  the  course  of  six  ^^ears,  baptized  a 
single  Islander.  In  the  mean  time, the  depravity  of  the  natives 
in  killing  their  infants  and  other  abominations  increased  so  fast, 
as  to  threaten  their  total  extinction.  In  the  Bengal  govern- 
ment, extending  over  from  thirty  to  forty  millions  of  people, 
with  all  its  influence  and  encouragement,  not  more  than  eighty 
converts  have  been  made  by  the  Protestant  missionaries  in 
seven  years,  and  those  were  almost  all  Chandalas  or  outcasts 
from  the  Hindoo  religion,  who  were  glad  to  get  a  pittance  for 
their  support,!  "  for  the  perseverance  of  several  of  whom," 


*  Berault  Bercastel  says  two  millions,  torn.  20. 

t  It  is  generally  known,  and  not  denied  by  Mosheim  himself,  that  the  exter- 
mination uf  the  flourishing  missions  in  Japan  is  to  be  ascribed  to  the  Dutch. 
When  they  became  masters  of  the  Portuguese  settlements  in  India,  they  endea- 
voured, by  persecution  as  well  as  by  other  means,  to  make  the  Christian  natives 
abandon  the  Catholic  religion  to  which  St.  Xavier  and  his  companions  had  con- 
verted them.  The  Calvinist  preachers  having  failed  in  their  attempt  to  prose- 
lyte the  Brazilians,  it  happened  that  one  of  their  party,  James  Sourie,  took  a 
merchant  vessel  at  sea  with  forty  Jesuit  missionaries,  under  F.  Azevedo,  on 
board  of  it,  bound  to  Brazil,  when,  in  hatred  to  them  and  their  destination,  he 
put  them  all  to  death.  The  year  following,  F.  Diaz,  with  eleven  companions, 
bound  on  the  same  mission,  and  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  Calvinists,  ni<»t  with 
the  same  fate.  Incredible  pains  were  taken  by  the  ministers  of  New  England 
to  induce  the  Hurons,  Iroquois,  and  other  converted  savages,  to  abandon  the  Ca- 
tholic religion,  when  the  latter  answered  them  :  "  You  never  preached  the 
word  to  us  while  we  were  Pagans ;  and  now  that  we  are  Christians,  you  try  to 
deprive  us  of  it." 

X  Extract  of  a  Speech  of  C.  Marsh,  Esq.  in  a  committee  of  the  H.  of  C.  July  I, 
1815.    See  also  Major  Waring's  remarks  on  Oxford  Sermons. 


192  Letter  XXX. 

their  instructors  say,  "  they  tremble."*  How  different  a  scene 
do  the  Catholic  missions  present!  To  say  nothing  of  ancient 
Christendom,  all  the  kingdoms  and  states  of  which  were  re- 
claimed from  Paganism  and  converted  to  Christianity  by  Ca- 
tholic preachers,  and  not  one  of  them  by  preachers  of  any  other 
description  :  what  extensive  and  populous  islands,  provinces  and 
states,  were  wholly,  or  in  a  great  part  reclaimed  from  idolatry, 
in  the  East  and  in  the  West,  soon  after  Luther's  revolt,  by  Ca- 
tholic missionaries  !  But  to  come  still  nearer  to  our  own  time  : 
F.  Bouchet,  alone,  in  the  course  of  his  twelve  years  labours  in 
Madura,  instructed  and  baptized  twenty  thousand  Indians, 
while  F.  Britto,  within  fifteen  months  only,  converted  and  re- 
generated eight  thousand,  when  he  sealed  his  mission  with  his 
blood.  By  the  latest  returns  which  I  have  seen  from  the  East- 
ern missionaries  to  the  directors  of  the  French  Missions  Etran- 
geres,  it  appears  that  in  the  western  district  of  Tonquin,  during 
the  five  years  precedhig  the  beginning  of  this  century,  four 
thousand  one  hundred  and  one  adults,  and  twenty-six  thousand 
nine  nundred  and  fifteen  children,  were  received  into  the  church 
by  baptism,  and  that  in  the  lower  part  of  Cochinchina,  nine 
hundred  grown  persons  had  been  baptized  in  the  course  of  two 
years,  besides  vast  numbers  of  children.  The  empire  of  China 
contains  six  bishops  and  some  hundreds  of  Catholic  priests.  In 
a  single  province  of  it,  Sutchuen,  during  the  year  1796,  fifteen 
hundred  adults  were  baptized,  and  two  thousand  five  hundred 
and  twenty-seven  Catechumens  were  received  for  instruction. 
By  letters  of  a  later  date  from  the  above  mentioned  martyr 
Dufresse,  bishop  of  Tabraca  and  Vic.  Ap.  of  Sutchuen,  it  ap- 
pears, that  during  the  year  1810,  in  spite  of  a  severe  persecu- 
tion, nine  hundred  and  sixty-five  adults  were  baptized,  and  du- 
ring 1814,  though  the  persecution  increased,  eight  hundred  and 
twenty-nine,  without  reckoning  infants,  received  baptism.  Bi- 
shop Lamote,  Vic.  Ap.  of  Fokien,  testifies  that,  in  his  district, 
during  the  year  1810,  ten  thousand  three  hundred  and  eighty- 
four  infants,  and  one  thousand  six  hundred  and  seventy-seven 
grown  persons,  were  baptized,  and  two  thousand  six  hundred 
and  seventy-four  Catechumens  admitted.  From  this  short 
specimen,  I  trust,  dear  sir,  it  will  appear  manifest  to  you,  on 
which  Christian  society  God  bestows' his  grace  to  eltecute  the 
work  of  the  apostles. a^j  well  as  to  preserve  their  doctrine^  theW 
orders  and  th(?ir  mission. 

As  to  the  wonderftd  effects  which  your  visiter  expects  from 

♦  Transact,  of  Prot.  Miss,  quoted  in  Edinb.  Review,  April,  180S. 


IZciicr  XXX.  193 

tbe  Bible  Society,  and  the  lliree  score  and  three  transhitious  into 
foreign  tongues  of  the  Enghsh  translation  of  the  BibJe,  in  the 
conversion  of  the  Pagan  world,  I  beg  leave  to  ask  him,  who  is 
to  voneh  to  the  Tartars,  Turks,  and  idolaters,  that  the  Testa- 
ments and  Bibles,  which  the  society  is  pouring  in  upon  them, 
were  inspired  by  the  Creator  ?  Who  is  toi  answer  for  these 
translations,  made  by  officers,  merchants,  and  merchants'  clerks, 
being  accurate  and  faithful  'f  Who  is  to  teach  these  barbarians 
to  read,  and,  after  that,  to  make  any  thing  like  a  connected 
sense  of  the  mysterious  volumes?  Docs  Mr.  C.  really  think 
that  an  inhabitant  of  Otaheite,  when  he  is  enabled  to  read  the 
Bible,  will  extract  the  sense  of  the  39  Articles  or  of  any  other 
Christian  system  whatever  from  it  ?  In  short,  has  the  Bible 
Society,  or  any  of  the  other  Protestant  societies,  converted  a 
single  Pagan  or  Mahometan  by  the  bare  text  of  Scripture? 
When  such  a  convert  can  be  produced,  it  will  be  time  enough 
for  me  to  propose  to  him  those  further  gravelling  questions 
which  result  from  my  observations  on  the  Sacred  Text  in  a 
former  letter  to  you.  In  the  mean  time  let  your  visiter  rest 
assured,  that  the  Catholic  church  will  proceed  in  the  old  and 
successful  manner,  by  which  she  has  converted  all  the  Christian 
people  on  the  face  of  the  earth  ;  the  same,  which  Christ  deli- 
vered to  his  apostles  and  their  successors :  Go  ye  into  all  the 
fvorld  and  ^jreach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature.  Mark.  xvi.  15. 
On  the  other  hand,  how  illusory  the  gentleman's  hopes  are, 
that  the  depravity  of  this  age  and  country  will  be  reformed  by 
the  efforts  of  the  Bible  Society,  has  been  victoriously  proved 
by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Hook,  who,  with  other  clear  sighted  church- 
men, evidently  sees  that  the  grand  principle  of  Protestantism, 
strictly  reduced  to  practice,  would  undermine  their  establish- 
ment. One  of  his  brethren,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Gisborne,  had  pub- 
licly boasted,  that  in  proportion  to  the  opposition,  which  the 
Bible  Society  had  met  with,  its  annual  income  had  increased, 
till  it  reached  near  a  hundred  thousand  pounds  in  a  year: 
Dr.  Hook,  in  return,  showed,  by  lists  of  the  convictions  of 
criminals  during  the  first  seven  years  of  the  society's  existence, 
that  the  wickedness  of  the  country,  instead  of  being  diminished, 
had  almost  been  doubled  !*     Since  that  period  up  to  the  pre- 

*  List  of  capital  convictions,  in  London  and  Middlesex,  in  the  following  years, 
from  Dr.  Hook's  Charge,  and  the  London  Chronicle  :— 


In  the  year|l808 


Convictions 


I  728 


1809 


863 


ISIO 


884 


1811  1812  181311814 


872    998  1012  1027 


[1815[1616|1S17 
2299 '2592  3177 


194  Letter  XXX. 

sent  year,  it  has  increased  three-fold  and  four-fold,  compared 
mth  its  state  before  the  society  began. 


POSTSCRIPT. 

I  HAVE  now,  dear  sir,  completed  the  second  task  which  I  un- 
dertook,  and  therefore  proceed  to  sum  up  my  evidence.  Hav- 
ing then  proved  in  my  twelve  former  letters,  the  rough  copies 
of  which  I  have  preserved,  that  the  two  alleged  rules  of  faith, 
tliat  o( private  inspiration  and  that  of  private  interpretation  of 
Scrijjture,  are  equally  fallacious,  and  that  there  is  no  certain 
way  of  coming  to  the  truth  of  divine  revelation  but  by  hearing 
that  church  which  Christ  built  on  a  rock  and  promised  to  abide 
with  for  ever  ;  I  engaged,  in  this  my  second  series  of  letters,  to 
demonstrate,  which,  among  the  dillerent  societies  of  Christians, 
is  the  church  that  Christ  founded  and  still  protects.  For  this 
purpose  I  have  had  recourse  to  the  principal  characters  or  marks 
of  ChrisVs  church,  as  they  are  pointed  out  in  Scripture  and 
formally  acknowledged  b}'  Protestants  of  nearly  all  descrip- 
tions, no  less  than  by  Catholics,  in  their  articles  and  in  those 
creeds,  which  form  part  of  their  private  prayers  aid  public 
liturgy,  namely,  unity,  sanctity,  Catholicity  and  apostolicity.  In 
fact,  this  is  what  every  one  acknowledges  who  says  in  the  apos- 
tles' Creed,  1  believe  in  the  holy  Catholic  church;  and,  in  the 
Nicene  Creed,*  /  believe  one  Catholic  and  apostolic  church. 
Treating  of  the  first  mark  of  the  true  church,  I  proved  from 
natural  reason.  Scripture,  and  tradition,  that  unity  is  essential 
to  her ;  I  then  showed  that  there  is  no  union  or  principle  of 
union  among  the  difterent  sects  of  Protestants,  except  their  com- 
mon protestation  against  their  mother  church,  and  that  the 
church  of  England,  in  particular,  is  divided  against  itself  in 
such  manner,  that  one  of  its  most  learned  prelates  has  declared 
himself  afraid  to  say,  what  is  its  doctrine.     On  the  other  hand, 

Capital  convictions  in  England  and  Wales,  during  the  former  seve^  years,  from 
Dr.  Hook's  Charge  : — 

|2723J3238|3158|3163'3913|4422J4025| 


N.  B.  To  the  convictions,  during  the  three  last  years,  in  London  and  MiddleseXt 
are  added  those  of  Surry,  in  the  London  Chronicle,  March  9,  1818. 
♦  See  the  Communion  Service,  in  Com.  Prayer. 


Letter  XXX,  Iftl 

I  have  shown  that  the  Catholic  church,  spread  as  she  is  ovet 
the  whole  earth,  is  one  and  the  same  in  her  doctrine^  in  her  lituT- 
gy^  and  in  her  government ;  and,  though  I  detest  rehgious  per- 
secution, I  have,  in  defiance  of  ridicule  and  clamour,  vindicated 
her  unchangeable  doctrine,  ajid  the  plain  dictate  of  reason,  aa 
to  the  indispensable  obligation  of  believing  what  God  teaches; 
in  other  words,  of  a  right  faith :  I  have  even  proved  that  her 
adherence  to  this  tenet  is  a  proof  both  of  the  truth  and  the 
charity  of  the  Catholic  church.  On  the  subject  of  holiness,  I 
have  made  it  clear  that  the  pretended  Reformation  every  where! 
originated  in  the  pernicious  doctrine  of  salvation  hy  faith  alonSy 
without  good  works;  and  that  the  Catholic  church  has  ever 
taught  the  necessity  of  them  both ;  likewise  that  she  possesses 
many  peculiar  means  of  sanctity,  to  which  modern  sects  do  not 
make  a  pretension,  likewise  that  she  has,  in  every  age,  pro- 
duced the  genuine  fruits  of  sanctity  ;  while  the  fruits  of  Pro- 
testantism have  been  of  quite  an  opposite  nature:  finally,  that 
God  himself  has  bore  witness  to  the  sanctity  of  the  Catholic 
church,  by  undeniable  miracles,  with  which  he  has  illustrated 
her  in  every  age.  It  did  not  require  much  pains  to  prove  that 
the  Catholic  church  possesses,  exclusively,  the  name  of  CA- 
THOLIC, and  not  much  more  to  demonstrate  that  she  alone 
has  the  qualities  signified  by  that  name.  That  the  Catholic 
church  is  also  APOSTOLICAL,  by  descending  in  a  right  line 
from  the  apostles  of  Christ,  is  as  evident  as  that  she  is  Catholic. 
However,  to  illustrate  this  matter,  I  have  sketched  out  a  genea- 
logical, or,  as  I  call  it,  the  apostolical  tree,  which,  with  the 
help  of  a  note  subjoined,  shows  the  uninterrupted  succession  of 
the  Catholic  church  in  her  chief  pontiffs  and  other  illustrious 
prelates,  doctors,  and  renowned  saints,  from  the  apostles  of 
Christ,  during  eighteen  centuries,  to  the  present  period;  to- 
gether with  the  continuation  in  her  of  the  apostolical  work  of 
converting  nations  and  people.  It  shons  also  a  series  of  un- 
happy heretics  and  schismatics,  of  different  times  and  countries,  _ 
who,  refusing  to  hear  her  inspired  voice  and  to  obey  her  divine 
authority,  have  been  separated  from  her  communion  and  have 
withered  away,  like  brandies,  cut  off  from  a  vine,  which  are  fit 
for  no  human  use.  Ezek.  xv.  Finally,  I  have  shown  the  ne- 
fcessity  of  an  uninterrupted  succession  from  the  apostles,  of  holy 
orders  and  divine  mission,  to  constitute  an  apostolical  church, 
and  have  proved  that,  these,  or  at  least  the  latter  of  them,  can 
only  be  found  in  tlie  holy  Catholic  church.  Having  demon-^ 
strated  all  this  in  the  fore,ir«>ing  letters,  ]  am  Justifi<'d,  dear  sir, 
in  affirming  that  the  motives  uf  credibility,  in  favour  cf  the  Chris- 


196  Letter  XXX, 

ti'an  religion,  in  general,  are  not  one  whit  more  clear  and  cer- 
tain than  those  in  favour  of  the  Catholic  religion  in  particular. 
But  without  inquiring  into  the  degree  of  evidence  attending  the 
latter  motives,  it  is  enough  for  my  present  purpose  that  they 
are  sufficiently  evident  to  influence  the  conduct  of  dispassionate 
and  reasonable  persons,  who  are  acquainted  with  them,  and  who 
are  really  in  earnest  to  save  their  souls.     Now,  in  proof,  that 
tiiese  motives  are  at  least  so  far  clear,  I  may  again  appeal  to 
♦jie  conduct  of  Catholics  on  a  death  bed,  who,  in  that  awful 
iituation,  never  wish  to  die  in  any  religion  but  their  own :  I 
may  also  appeal  to  the  conduct  of  so  many  Protestants  in  the 
same  situation,  who  seek  to  reconcile  themselves  to  the  Catholic 
church.     Let  us,  one  and  all,  my  dear  sir,  as  far  as  is  in  our 
power,  adopt  these  sentiments  in  every  respect  now,  which  we 
shall  entertain,  when  the  transitory  scene  of  this  world  is  closing 
to  our  sight,  and  during  the  countless  ages  of  eternity.     O  the 
length,  the  breadth,  and  the  depth  of  the  abyss  of  ETERNI- 
TY !     "  JVb  security ^^^  says  a  holy  man,  "  can  he  too  great 
where  eternity  is  at  stake^^ 

I  am,  &c. 

J.M. 

♦  "Nulla  satis  magna  securitas  ubi  periclitatur  Eternitas.'* 


THE  END 

OF 

RELIGIOUS  CONTROVERSY, 

PART  III. 


LETTER  XXXI. 

FromMMES  BROJVjY,  Esq.  to  the  Rev,  J.  M, 
I).  D,  F.  S.  A. 


INTRODUCTION. 

Reverend  Sir, 
The  whole  of  your  letters  have  again  been  read  over  in  our 
society ;  and  they  have  produced  important  though  diversified 
eflects  on  the  minds  of  its  several  members.     For  my  own  part, 
I  am  free  to  own,  that,  as  your  former  letters  convinced  me  in 
the  truth  of  your  rule  of  faith,  namely  the  entire  Word  of  God, 
and  of  the  right  of  the  true  church  to  expound  it  in  all  questions 
concerning  its  meaning;  so  your  subsequent  letters  have  satis- 
fied me  that  the  characters  or  marks  of  the  true  church,  as  thev 
are  laid  down  in  our  common  creeds,  are  clearly  visible  in  the 
Roman  Catholic  church,  and  not  in  the  collection  of  Protest- 
ant churches,  nor  in  any  one  of  them.     This  impression  was,  at 
first,  so  strong  upon  my  mind  that  I  could  liave  answered  you 
nearly  in  the  words  of  king  Agrippa,  to  St.  Paul :  almost  thou 
persuadest  me  to  become  a  Catholic,  Acts  xxvi.  28.     The  san)« 
appear  to  be  the  sentiments  of  several  of  my  friends  :  but  when, 
on  comparing  our  notes   together,  we  considered  the  heavj 
charges,   particularly    of  superstition    and   idolatry,    brought 
against  your  church  by  our  eminent  divines,  and  especially  by 
the  bishop  of  London  (Dr.  Porteus,)  and  never,  that  we  hav« 
heard  of,  refuted  or  denied,  we  cannot  but  tread  back  the  step* 
we  have  taken  towards  you,  or  rather  stand  still,  where  we  are, 


rt8  Letter  XXXL 

in  suspense,  till  we  hear  what  answer  you  will  make  to  them  :  I 
speak  of  those  contained  in  the  bishop's  well  known  treatise 
called  A  Brief  Confutation  of  the  Errors  of  the  Church  of  Rome, 
With  respect  to  certain  other  members  of  our  society,  I  am 
sorry  to  be  obliged  to  say,  that,  on  this  particular  subject,  I 
mean  the  arguments  in  favour  of  your  religion,  they  do  xwt 
manifest  the  candour  and  good  sense,  which  are  natural  to 
them,  and  which  they  show  on  every  other  subject.    They  pro- 
nounce, with  confidence  and  vehemence,  that  Dr.   Porteus's 
charges  are  all  true,  and  that  you  cannot  make  any  rational  an- 
swer to  them ;  at  the  same  time,  that  several  of  these  gentle^ 
men,  to  my  knowledge,  are  very  little  acquainted  with  the  sub- 
stance of  them.     In  short,  they  are  apt  to  load  your  religion 
and  the  professors  of  it,  with  epithets  and  imputations  too  gross 
and  injurious  for  me  to  repeat,  convinced  as  I  am  of  their  false- 
hood.   I  shall  not  be  surprised  to  hear  that  some  of  these  impu- 
tations have  been  transmitted  to  you  by  the  persons  in  questioB, 
as  I  have  declined  making  my  letters  the  vehicle  of  them  ;  it  is 
ft  justice,  however,  which  I  owe  them,  to  assure  you.  Rev.  sir, 
that  it  is  only  since  they  have  understood  the  inference  of  your 
arguments  to  be  such  as  to  imply  an  obligation  on  them  of  re- 
nouncing their  own  respective  religions,  and  embracing  yours, 
that  they  have  been  so  unreasonable  and  violent.     Till  this  pe- 
riod they  appeared  to  be  nearly  as  liberal  and  charitable  with 
respect  to  your  communion  as  to  any  other.  , 

I  am,  Rev.  Sir,  he. 

JAMES  BROWN. 


[  199] 


LETTER  XXXIL 

To  JAMES  BROWJV,  Esq. 

0)r  THE  CHARGES  AGdlJ^ST  THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCB. 

Dear  Sir, 
I  SHOULD  be  guilty  of  deception  were  I  to  disguise  the  satis- 
faction I  derive  from  your  and  your  friends,  near  approacli  to  the 
house  of  unity  and  peace,  as  St.  Cyprian  calls  the  Catholic 
church:  for  such  I  must  judge  37our  situation  to  be  from  the 
tenour  of  your  last  letter,  by  which  it  seems  to  me,  that  your 
entire  reconciliation  with  this  church  depends  on  my  refuting 
Bp.  Porteus's  objections  against  it:  and  yet,  dear  sir,  if  I  were* 
to  insist  on  the  strict  rules  of  reasoning,  I  might  take  occasion 
of  complaining  of  you  from  the  very  concessions  which  afford 
me  so  much  pleasure.     In  fact,  if  you  admit  that  the  church  of 
God,  is,  by  his  appointment,  the  interpreter  of  the  entire  Word 
of  God,  you  ought  to  pay  attention  to  her  doctrine  on  every 
point  of  it,  and  not  to  the  suggestions  of  Dr.  Porteus  or  your 
own  fancy  in  opposition  to  it.     Agriin,   if  you  are  convinced 
that  the  one,  holy.  Catholic  and  apostolical  church  is  the  true 
church  of  God,  you  ought  to  be  persuaded  that  it  is  utterly  im- 
possible she  should  inculcate  idolatry,  superstition,  or  any  other 
wickedness,  and,  of  course,  that  those  who  believe  her  to  be  thub 
guilty  are  and  must  be  in  a  fatal  error.     I  have  proved  from 
reason,  tradition,  and  holy  Scripture,  that,  as  individual  Chris-- 
tians  cannot  of  themselves  judge  with  certainty  of  matters  of 
faith,  God  has  therefore  provided  them  with  an  unerring  guide, 
in  his  holy  church  ;  and  hence  that  Catholics,  as  Tertullian  and 
St.  Vincent  of  Lerins  emphatically  pronounce,  cannot  strictly 
and  consistently,  be  required  by  those  who  are  not  Cathohcs. 
to  vindicate  the  particular  tenets  of  their  belief,  either  from 
Scripture  or  any  other  authority :  it  being  sufficient  for  them  to  ' 
show  that  they  hold  the  doctrine  of  the  true  church  which  all 
Christians  are  bound  to  hear.     Nevertheless,  as  it  is  my  dut> , 
after  the  example  of  the  apostle,  to  become  all  things  to  all  men, 
1  Cor.  ix*  22,  and  as  we  Catholics  are  conscious  of  being  able 
to  meet  our  opponents  on  their  own  ground,  as  well  as  on  ours, 
I  am  willing,  dear  sir,  for  your  and  your  friends'  satisfaction,  to 
enter  on  a  brief  discussion  of  the  leading  points  of  controversy 
which  are  agitated  between  the  Catholics  and  the  Protestants, 
particularly  those  of  the  church  of  England.     I  must,  however^ 


200  Letter  XXXIL 

previously   stipulate  with    you  for   the   following   conditions, 
which  I  trust  you  will  find  perfectly  reasonable. 

1st.  I  require  that  Catholics  should  be  permitted  to  lay  down 
their  own  principhs  of  belief  and  practice,  and,  of  course,  to 
distinguish  between  their  articles  of  faith  in  which  they  must  all 
agree,  and  mere  scholastic  ojjinions,  of  which  every  individual 
may  judge  for  himself;  as,  likewise,  between  the  authorized 
liturgy  and  discipline  of  the  church  and  the  unauthorized  devo- 
tions and,  practices  of  particular  persoiis.  I  insist  upon,  this 
preliminary,  because  it  is  the  constant  practice  of  your  contro- 
versialists to  dress  up  a  hideous  figure,  composed  of  their  own 
misrepresentations,  or  else  of  those  undefined  opinions  and  un- 
authorized practices,  which  they  call  Popery;  and  then  to 
amuse  their  readers  or  hearers  with  exposing  the  deformity  of  it 
and  pulling  it  to  pieces;  and  I  have  the  greater  right  to  insist 
upon  this  preliminary,  because  our  creeds  and  professions  of 
faith,  the  acts  of  our  councils  and  our  approved  expositions  and 
Catechisms,  containing  the  principles  of  our  belief  and  practice, 
from  which  no  real  Catholic  in  any  part  of  the  world  can  ever 
depart,  are  before  the  public  and  upon  constant  sale  among 
booksellers. 

2dly.  It  being  a  notorious  fact  that  certain  individual  Chris- 
tians, or  bodies  of  Christians,  have  departed  from  the  faith  and 
communion  of  the  church  of  all  nations,  under  pretence  that 
they  had  authority  for  so  doing,  it  is  necessary  tiiat»their  al- 
leged authority  should  be  express,  and  incontrovertible.  Thus, 
for  example,  if  texts  of  Scripture  are  brought  for  this  purpose, 
it  is  evidently  necessary  that  such  texts  should  be  clear  in  them- 
selves and  not  contrasted  by  any  other  texts  seemingh*  of  an  op- 
posite meaning.  In  like  manner,  when  any  doctrine  or  prac- 
tice appears  to  be  undenialdy  sanctioned  by  a  father  of  the 
church,  for  example,  of  the  third  or  the  fourth  century,  without 
an  appearance  of  contradiction  from  any  other  father,  or  eccle- 
siastical writer,  it  is  unreasonable  to  affirm  that  he  or  his  con- 
temporaries were  the  authors  of  it,  as  Protestant  divines  are  in 
the  habit  of  alfirming.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  natural  to  sup- 
pose that  such  father  has  taken  up  this  with  the  other  points  of 
his  religion  from  his  predecessors,  who  received  them  from  the 
apostles.  This  is  the  sentiment  of  that  bright  lumTnary  St. 
Augustin,  who  says,  "  Whatever  is  found  to  be  held  by  the 
Universal  church,  and  not  to  have  had  its  beginning  in  bishops 


Letter  XXXIT.  iO| 

und  councils,  must  be  esteemed  a  tradition  from  those  by  whom 
the  church  itself  was  founded."* 

You  judged  right  in  supposing  that  I  have  received  some  let- 
ters, containing  virulent  and  gross  invectives  against  the  Ca- 
tholic religion,  from  certain  members  of  your  society.  These 
do  not  surprise  or  hurt  me,  as  the  writers  of  them  have  probably 
not  yet  had  an  opportunity  of  knowing  much  more  of  this  reli- 
gion than  what  they  could  collect  from  fifth  of  November,  and 
other  sermons  of  the  same  tendency,  and  from  circulated 
pamphlets  expressly  calculated  to  inflame  the  population 
against  it  and  its  professors ;  but  what  truly  surprises  and  af- 
flicts me  is,  that  so  many  other  personages  in  a  more  elevated 
rank  of  life,  whose  education  and  studies  enable  them  to  form  a 
more  just  idea  of  the  religious  and  moral  principles  of  their  an- 
cestors, benefactors,  and  founders,  in  short  of  their  acknowledg- 
ed fathers  and  saints,  should  combine  to  load  these  fathers  and 
saints  with  calumnies  and  misrepresentations  which  they  must 
know  to  be  utterly  false.  But,  a  bad  cause  must  be  supported 
by  bad  means  5  they  are  unfortunately  implicated  in  a  revolt 
against  the  true  church ;  and  not  having  the  courage  and  self- 
denial  to  acknowledge  their  error  and  return  to  her  communion, 
they  endeavour  to  justify  their  conduct  by  interposing  a  black 
and  hideous  mask  before  the  fair  countenance  of  this  true  mo- 
ther, Christ's  spotless  spouse.  This  is  so  far  true,  that  when, 
as  it  often  happens,  a  Protestant  is,  by  dint  of  argument,  forced 
out  of  his  errors  and  prejudices  against  the  true  religion,  if  he 
be  pressed  to  embrace  it,  and  wants  grace  to  do  it,  he  is  sure  to 
fly  back  to  those  very  calumnies  and  misrepresentations  which 
he  had  before  renounced.  The  fact  is,  he  must  fight  with  these, 
or  yield  himself  unarmed  to  his  Catholic  opponent. 

That  you  and  your  friends  may  not  think  me,  dear  sir,  to 
have  complained  without  just  cause  of  the  publications  and  ser- 
mons of  the  respectable  characters  I  have  alluded  to,  I  must  in- 
form you  that  I  have  now  lying  before  nve  a  volume  called 
Good  Advice  to  the  Pulpits,  consisting  of  the  foulest  and  most 
malignant  falsehoods  against  the  Catholic  religion  and  its  pro- 
fessors, which  tongue  or  pen  can  express,  or  the  most  enve- 
nomed heart  conceive.  It  was  collected  from  the  sermons  and 
treatises  of  prelates  and  dignitaries,  by  that  able  and  faithful 
writer,  the  Rev.  John  Gother,  soon  after  the  gall  of  caUimnious 
ink  had  been  mixed  up  with  the  blood  of  slaughtered  Catholics; 
a  score  of  whom  were  executed  as  traitors  for  a  pretended  plot 

♦  Lib.  ii.  De  BapL  -^^     ^ 

%  C 


fOf  Letter  XXXII. 

to  murder  their  friend  and  proselyte,  Charles  II ;  a  plot  which 
was  liatched  by  men  who  themselves  were  soon  after  convicted 
of  a  real  assassination  plot  against  the  king.     At  that  time,  the 
parliaments  were  so  blinded  as  repeatedly  to  vote  the  reality  of 
the  plot  in  question  :  hence  it  is  easy  to  judge  with  what  sort 
of  language  the  pulpits  would  resound  against  the  poor  devoted 
Catholics  at  that  period.     But  without  quoting  from  former 
records,  I  need  only  refer  to  a  few  of  the  publications  of  the 
present  day  to  justify  my  complaint.     To  begin  with  some  of 
tlie  numberless  slanders  contained  in  the  No  Popery  Tract  of 
tlie  bishop  of  London,  Dr.  Porteus  :  he  charges  CathoHcs  with 
"  senseless  idolatry  to  the  infinite  scandal  of  religion;"*  with 
trying  "  to  make  the  ignorant  think  that  indulgences  deliver 
the  dead  from  hell  ;"t  and  that  by  means  of  "  zeal  for  holy 
church,  the  worst  man  may  be  secured  from  future  misery  :"{ 
and  the  bishop  of  St.  Asaph,  Dr.  Halifax,  charges  Catholics 
with  "  Antichristian  idolatry,^  the  worship  of  demons, ||   and 
idol  mediators. "IF     He,  moreover,  maintains  it  to  be  the  doc- 
trine of  the  church  of  Rome,  that  "  pardon  for  svery  sin,  whe- 
ther committed  or  designed,  may  be  purchased  for  money.** 
The  bishop  of  Durham,  Di-.  Shute  Harrington,  accuses  them  of 
"  idolatry,  blasphemy,  and  sacrilege."ff     The  bishop  of  Lan- 
daff.  Dr.  Watson,  impeaches  the  CathoHc  priests,  martyrolo- 
gists,   and   monks,  without   exception,  of  the   "  hypocrisy  of 
liars  ;"f  J  and  he  lays  it  down,  as  the  moral  doctrine  of  Ca- 
tholics, that  "  humility,  temperance,  justice,  the  love  of  God 
and  man,  are  not  laws  for  all  Christians,  but  only  counsels  of 
perfection. "§§     He  elsewhere  says,  "  that  the  Popish  rehgion  is 
the  Christian  religion,  is  a  false  position. "||||     He  has,  more- 
over, adopted  and  republished  the  sentiments  of  some  of  his 
other  mitred  brethren  to  the  same  purpose.     One  of  these  as- 
serts, that,  "  instead  of  worshipping  God  through  Christ,  they 
(the  Catholics)   have  substituted  the  doctrine  of  demons. "ITIT 
"  They  have  contrived  numberless  ways  to  make  a  holy  life 
needless,  and  to  assure  the  most  abandoned  of  salvation,  with- 
out repentance,  provided  they  will  sufficiently  pay  the  priest  for 
absolution."***     "  They  have  consecrated  murders,  &ic."f  f  f 
"  The  Papists  stick  fast  in  filthy  mire — by  the  affection  they 

♦  Confulalion,  p.  30,  edit.  179C.  t  Ibid.  p.  53.  X  Ibid.  p.  53. 

*i  Warburton's  Lectures,  p.  191.  |J  Ibid.  p.  35S.  %  Ibid.  p.  358L 

♦*  Ibid.  p.  347.  ft  Charge,?.  11.  XX  Letter  II.  to  Gibbou, 

H  Bishop  Watson's  Tract*;,  vol.  i.  HO  Ibid.  vol.  v.  Contents. 

iT  Bishop  Benson's  Tracts,  vol.  v.  p.  272,  •*♦  Ibid.  p.  273. 

ttt  Ibid.  p.  282, 


Letter  XXXII.  206 

bear  to  othei*  lusts,  which  their  errors  are  fitted  to  gratify."* 
"  It  is  impossible  that  any  sincere  person  should  give  an  im- 
plicit assent  to  many  of  their  doctrines  :  but,  whoever  can  prac- 
tice upon  them,  can  be  nothinj:^  better  than  a  most  shamefully 
debauched  and  immoral  wretch. "f     Another  prelate,  of  later 
promotion,  gives  a  comprehensi\e  idea  of  Catholics,  where  he 
calls  them  "  Enemies  of  all  law,  human  and  divine. "J    If  such 
be  the  tone  of  the  Episcopal  bench,  it  would  be  vain  to  expect 
more  moderation  from  the  candidates  for  it :  but  I  must  con- 
tract my  quotations  in  order  to  proceed  to  more  important  mat- 
ter.    One  of  these,  who,  while  he  was  content  with  an  inferior 
dignity,  acted  and  preached  as  the  friend  of  Catholics,  since  he 
has  arrived  at  the  verge  of  the  highest,  proclaims  "  Popery  to 
be  idolatry  and  Antichristianism ;"  maintaining,   as   does  also 
the  bishop  of  Durham,  that  it  is  "  the  parent  of  Atheism,  and  of 
that  antichristian  persecution"  (in  France)  of  which  it  was  ex- 
clusively the  victim. §     Another  dignitary  of  the  same  cathedral, 
taking  up  Dr.  Sparke's  calumny,   seriously  declares  that  the 
Catholics    are  Aniinom{ans,\\  which  is  the  distinctive  charac- 
ter of  the  Jumpers,  and  other  rank  Calvinists.     Finally,  the 
celebrated   city   preacher,   C.  De  Coetlogon,    among    similar 
graces  of  oratory,  pronounces  that  "  Popery  is  calculated  only 
fbr  the  meridian  of  hell.    To  say  the  best  of  it  that  can  be  said, 
Popery  is  a  most  horrid  compound  of  idolatry,  superstition,  and 
blasphemy."^     "  The  exercise  of  Christian  virtues  is  not  at  all 
necessary  in  its  members  ,  nay,  there  are  many  heinous  crimes, 
which  are  reckoned  virtues  among  them,  such  as  perjury  and 
murder,  when  committed  against   heretics."^*     And  is    such 
then,  dear  sir,  the  real  character  of  the  great  body  of  Christians 
throughout  the  world  ?     Is  such  a  true  picture  of  our  Saxon 
and  English  ancestors  ?     Were   such  the   clergy  from  whom 
these  modern  preachers  and  writers  derive  their  liturgy,  their 
ritual,  their  honours  and  benefices,  and  from  whom  they  boast 
of  deriving  their  orders  and  mission  also?     But,  after  all,  do 
these  preachers  and  writers  themselves  seriously  believe  such  to 
be  the  true  character  of  their  Catholic  countrymen,  and  the 
primitive  religion  ?   No,  sir,  they  do  not  seriously  believe  it  iff 

*  Bishop  Fowler,  vol.  vi.  p.  386..  t  Ibid.  p.  3S7. 

J  Dr.  Sparke,  Bishop  of  Ely,  Cmcio.  ad  Synod.  1807. 

^  Discourses  of  Dr.  Rennel,  dean  of  Winchester,  p.  140,  &c. 

I  Charge  of  Dr.  Hook,  archdeacon,  &c.  p.  5,  &c. 

%  Seasonable  Caution  against  the  abominations  of  the  Churcli  of  Rome,  Pref. 
p.  5  **  Ibid.  p.  14. 

ft  This  may  be  exemplified  by  the  conduct  of  Dr.  Wake,  archbishop  of  Cantcr- 
kury.     Few  writers  had  misrepresented  the  Catholic  relig-ion  more  foully  tlian  he 


204  Letter  XKXIL 

but  being  unfortunately  engaged,  as  I  said  before,  in  an  here- 
ditary revolt  against  the  church,  which  shines  forth  conspicuous, 
with  every  feature  of  truth  in  her  countenance,  and  wanting  the 
rare  grace  of  acknowledging  their  error,  at  the  expense  of 
tenii)oral  advantages,  they  have  no  other  defence  for  themselves 
but  clamour  and  calumny,  no  resource  for  shrouding  those 
beauteous  features  of  the  church,  but  by  placing  before  them 
the  hideous  mask  of  misrepresentation ! 

Before  I  close  this  letter,  1  cannot  help  expressing  an  earnest 
wish  that  it  were  in  my  power  to  suggest  three  most  important 
considerations  to  all  and  every  one  of  the  theological  calumnia- 
tors in  question.  I  pass  over  their  injustice  and  cruelty  towards 
us;  thougli  this  bears  some  resemblance  with  the  barbarity  of 
Nero  towards  our  predecessors,  the  first  Christians  of  Rome, 
who  disguised  them  in  the  skins  of  wild  beasts,  and  then  hunted 
them  to  death  with  dogs.  But  Christ  has  warned  us  as  follows: 
It  is  enough  for  the  disciple  to  be  as  his  master ;  if  they  have 
called  the  master  of  the  house  Beelzebub:  how  much  more  them 
of  his  household.  In  fact,  we  know  that  those  our  above-men- 
tioned predecessors  were  charged  with  worshipping  the  head  of 
an  ass,  and  of  killing  and  eating  children,  &ic. 

The  first  observation  which  1  am  desirous  of  making  to  these 
controvertists,  is,  that  their  charges  and  invectives  against  Ca«' 
tliolics  never  unsettle  the  faith  of  a  single  individual  amongst 
us  ;  much  less  do  they  cause  any  Catholic  to  quit  ouf  commu- 
nion. This  we  are  sure  of,  because,  after  all  the  pains  and  ex- 
bad  done  in  his  controversial  works :  even  in  his  commentary  on  the  Catechism, 
he  accuses  it  of  heresy,  schism,  and  idolatry:  but,  having  entered  into  a  correspond- 
ence with  Dr.  Dupin,  for  the  pui-pose  of  uniting  their  respective  churches,  he  osh 
»ures  the  Catholic  divine,  in  his  last  letter  to  him,  aa  follows:  "  In  dogmatibus, 
prout  a  te  candide  proponuntur,  non  admodum  dissentimus :  in  regimine  eccle- 
•iastico  minus;  in  fundamcntalibus,  sive  doctrinam,  sive  disciphnam  spectemua^ 
Tix  omnino."  Append,  to  Mosheim'.s  Hist.  vol.  vi.  p.  121.  The  present  writer 
hxs  been  informed,  on  good  authority,  that  one  of  the  bishops,  whose  calumnies 
are  here  quoted,  when  he  found  himself  on  his  deatlibed,  refused  the  proffered 
ministry  of  the  primate,  and  expressed  a  great  wish  to  die  a  Catholic.  When 
urged  to  satisfy  his  conscience,  he  exclaimed  :  JVhat  then  will  become  of  my  lady 
and  my  children!  Certain  it  is  that  very  many  Protestants,  who  had  been  the  most 
▼ioicnt  in  their  language  and  conduct  against  the  Catholic  church,  as  for  example, 
John,  Elector  of  Saxony,  Margaret,  Queen  of  Navarre,  Cromwell,  Lord  Essex, 
Dudley,  Earl  of  Northumberland,  king  Charles  II,  the  late  Lords  Moptague,  Nu- 
jrent,  Dunboyne,  &c.  did  actually  reconcile  themselves  to  the  Cathonc  church  in 
that  situation.  The  writer  may  add,  that  another  of  the  calumniators  here  quoted, 
being  desirotis  of  stifling  the  suspicion  of  his  having  written  an  anonymous  No 
Pi>j)ery  publication,  when  first  l)e  took  part  in  that  cause,  privately  addressed  him- 
i'A\to  tlic  writer  in  tli^se  terms  :  How  can  you  suxpect  me  of  tcriting  agxiinst  your 
rfli'^on,  when  yon  so  veil  knotr  my  attachment  to  it!  In  fact,  this  modern  Luther, 
»Ti;ong  otljcr  similar  concessions,  hxs  said  thus  to  the  writer:  1  tucLtdin  •  lovtfrr 
the  Catholic  rrlisivn  uith  my  mother't  milk. 


Letter  XXXII.  205 

penses  of  the  Protestant  societies  to  distribute  Dr.  Porteus's 
Confutation  of  Popery ^  and  other  tracts,  in  the  houses  and  cot- 
tages of  Catholics,  not  one  of  the  latter  ever  comes  to  us,  their 
pastors,  to  be  furnished  with  an  answer  to  the  accusations  con- 
tained in  them  ;  the  truth  is,  they  previously  know  from  their 
catechisms,  the  falsehood  of  them.  Sometimes,  no  doubt,  a 
dissolute  youth,  from  "  libertinism  of  principles  and  practice," 
as  one  of  the  above-mentioned  lords  loudly  proclaimed  of  him- 
self, on  his  deathbed  ;  and  sometimes  an  ambitious  or  avaricious 
nobleman  or  gentleman,  to  get  honour  or  wealth  ;  finally,  some- 
times a  profligate  priest,  to  get  a  wife,  or  a  living,  forsakes  our 
communion ;  but,  I  may  challenge  Dr.  Porteus  to  produce  a 
single  proselyte  from  Popery  throughout  the  dioceses  of  Chester 
and  London,  who  has  been  gained  by  his  book  against  it :  and 
I  may  say  the  same  with  respect  to  the  bishop  of  Durham's 
wVo  Popery  Charges,  throughout  the  dioceses  of  Sarum  and 
Durham. 

A  second  point  of  still  greater  importance  for  the  considera- 
tion of  these  distinguished  preachers  and  writers  is,  that  their 
flagrant  misrepresentation  of  the  Catholic  religion,  is  constant- 
ly an  occasion  of  the  conversion  of  several  of  their  own  most 
epright  members  to  it.  Such  Christians,  when  they  fall  into 
company  with  Catholics,  or  get  hold  of  their  books,  cannot  fail 
of  inquiring  whether  they  are  really  those  monsters  of  idolatry, 
irreligion  and  immorality,  which  those  divines  have  represent- 
ed them  to  be ;  when,  discovering  how  much  they  have  been 
deceived  in  these  respects,  by  misrepresentation  ;  and,  in  short, 
viewing  now  the  fair  face  of  the  Catholic  church,  instead  of  the 
hideous  mask  which  had  been  placed  before  it,  they  seldom  fail 
to  become  enamoured  of  it,  and,  in  case  religion  is  their  chief 
concern,  to  become  our  very  best  Catholics. 

The  most  important  point,  however,  of  all  others  for  the  con- 
sideration of  these  learned  theologues,  is  the  following:  W$ 
must  all  appear  before  the  judgment  seat  of  Christ,  to  be  ex- 
amined on  our  observance  of  that  commandment,  among  the 
rest,  thou  shalt  not  bear  false  vntness  against  tky  neighbour; 
supposing  then  these  their  clamorous  charges  against  their  Ca- 
tholic neighbours,  of  idolatry,  blasphemy,  perfidy,  and  thirst  of 
blood,  should  then  appear,  as  they  most  certainly  will  appear^ 
to  be  calumnies  of  the  woifst  sort,  what  will  it  avail  their  au- 
thors that  these  have  answered  the  temporary  purpose  of  pre- 
venting the  emancipation  of  Catholics,  and  of  rousing  th«  po- 


206  Letter  XXXIIL 

pular  hatred  and  fury  against  them  !     Alas  !  wha^  will  it  avail 
them ' 

I  am,  Dear  Sir,  yours,  &ic. 

J.  M. 


LETTER  XXXIII. 
To  MMES  BROWN,  Esq. 

0^  THE  INVOCATIOJ^  OF  S^IJ^TS, 

Dear  Sir, 

The  first  and  most  heavy  charge  which  Protestants  bring 
against  Catholics,  is  that  of  idolatry.  They  say,  that  the  Ca- 
tiiolic  church  has  been  guilty  of  this  crime  and  apostasy,  by 
sanctioning  the  invocation  of  saints,  and  the  worship  of  images 
and  pictures :  and  that  on  this  account  they  have  been  obliged 
to  abandon  her  communion,  in  obedience  to  the  voice  from  hea- 
ven, saying,  Come  out  of  her,  my  people,  that  ye  be  not  partakers 
of  her  sins,  and  that  ye  receive  not  of  her  plagues.  Rev.  xviii. 
4.  Nevertheless,  it  is  certain,  dear  sir,  that  Protestantism  was 
not  founded  on  this  ground  either  in  Germany  or  in  England  : 
for  Luther  warmly  defended  the  Catholic  doctrine  in  both  the 
aforesaid  particulars,  and  our  English  reformers,  particularly 
king  Edward's  uncle,  the  duke  of  Somerset,  only  took  up  this 
pretext  of  idolatry,  as  the  most  popular,  in  order  to  revolution- 
ize the  ancient  religion,  which  they  were  carrying  on  from  mo- 
tives of  avarice  and  ambition.  The  same  reasons,  namely,  that 
tliis  charge  cf  idolatry  is  best  calculated  to  inflame  the  ignorant 
against  the  Catholic  church,  and  to  furnish  a  pretext  foi'  de- 
serting her,  have  caused  Protestant  controvertists  to  keep  up 
tJie  outcry  against  her  ever  since,  and  to  vie  with  each  other  in 
the  foulness  cf  their  misrepresentation  of  her  doctrine  in  this 
particular. 

To  speak  f»rst  of  the  invocation  of  saints  :  archbisHop  Wake, 
[who  afterwarJ,  as  we  have  seen,  acknowledged  to  Dr.  Dupin, 
that  there  was  no  fundamental  difference  between  his  doctrine 
and  that  of  Catholics]   in  his  popular  Commentary  on  the 


Letter  XXXIIL  JOt 

Church  Catechism,  maintains,  that  "  The  church  of  Rome  hai 
other  Gods  besides  the  Lord."*     Another  prelate,  whose  work 
has  been  lately  republished  by  the  bishop  of  Landaff,  pronounce* 
of  Catholics,  that,  "  Instead  of  worshipping  Christ,  they  have 
substituted  the  doctrine  of  demonsy\     In  the  same  blasphe- 
mous terms,  Mede,  and  a  hundred  other  Protestant  controvert- 
ists,  speak  of  our  communion  of  saints.    The  bishop  of  London, 
among  other  such  calumnies,  charges  us  with  "  Bringing  back  th« 
heathen  multitude  of  deities  into  Christianity ;"  that  we  "  Re- 
commend ourselves  to  some  favourite  saint,  not  by  a  religious 
Hfe,  but  by  flattering  addresses  and  costly  presents,  and  often 
depend  much  more  on  his  intercession,  than  on  our  blessed 
Saviour's j"  and  that,  "being  secure  of  the  favour   of  these 
courtiers  of  heaven,  we  pay  little  regard  to  the  King  of  it."J 
Such  is  the  misrepresentation  of  the  doctrine  and  practice  of 
Catholics  on  this  point,  which  the  first  ecclesiastical  characters 
in  the  nation  publish  ;  because,  in  fact,  their  cause  has  not  a  leg 
to  stand  on,  if  you  take  away  misrepresentation!     Let  us  now 
hear  what  is  the  genuine  doctrine  of  the  Catholic  church  in  this 
article,  as  solemnly  defined  by  the  Pope,  and  near  three  hundred 
prelates  of  different  nations,  at  the  council  of  Trent,  in  the  fac6 
of  the  whole  world ;  it  is  simply  this,  that  '*  The  saints  reign- 
ing with  Christ  offer  up  their  prayers  to  God  for  men;  that  it  is 
good  and  useful  suppliantly  to  invoke  them,  and  to  have  re- 
course to  their  prayers,  help,  and  assistance,  to  obtain  favours 
from  God,  through  his  Son  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  who  is  alorm 
our  Redeemer  and  Saviour."^     Hence  the  Catechism  of  the 
council  of  Trent,  published  in  virtue  of  its  decree,  ||  by  order  of 
Pope  Pius  V,  teaches,  that  "  God  and  the  saints  are  not  to 
be  prayed  to  in  the  same  manner ;  for  we  pray  to  God  that  he 
himself  would  give  us  good  things,  and  deliver  us  from   evil 
things  ;  but  we  beg  of  the  saints,  because  they  are  pleasing  to 
God,  that  they  would  he  our  advocates,  and  obtain  from  God 
what  we  stand  in  need  of."ir     Our  first  English  Catechism  for 
the  instruction  of  children,  says,  "We  are  to  honour  saints  and 
angels  as  God's  special  friends  and  servants,  but  not  with  the 
honour  which  belongs  to  God."     Finally,    The  Papist  Misrt- 
presented  and  Represented,  a  work  of  great  authority  among 
Catholics,  first  published  by  our  eminent  divine  Gother,  and  re- 
published by  our  venerable  bishop,  Challoner,  pronounces  tht 


♦  Sect,  2—3.  t  Bishop  Watson's  Theol.  Tracts,  vol.  r,  p.  272. 

X  Brief  Confut.  pp.  23,  25.  ^  Concil.  Trid.  Sese.  25.  de  Ini«a 

I  ISf  5,5,  5J4,  de  Ref.  c.  7.  5  Pars  IV.  Qui«  orandus. 


108  Letter  XXXIIT. 

following  anathema  against  that  idolatrous  phantom  of  Catbo* 
licity,  which  Protestant  controvertists  have  held  up  for  the 
identical  Catholic  church  .  "  Cursed  is  he  that  believes  the 
saints  in  heaven  to  be  his  redeemers,  thr .■  prays  to  them  as  such, 
or  that  gives  God's  honour  to  them,  or  to  any  creature  whatso- 
ever. Amen."  "  Cursed  is  every  goddess  worshipper,  that 
believes  the  B.  Virgin  Mary  to  be  any  more  than  a  creature; 
that  worships  her,  or  puts  his  trust  in  her  more  than  in  God, 
*Jiat  believes  her  above  her  Son,  or  that  she  can  in  any  thing 
command  him.     Amen."* 

You  see,  dear  sir,  how  widely  different  the  doctrine  of  Ca- 
tliolics,  as  defined  by  our  church,  and  really  held  by  us,  is  from 
the  caricature  of  it,  held  up  by  interested  preachers  and  con- 
trovertists, to  scare  and  inflame  an  ignorant  m altitude.  So  far 
from  making  gods  and  goddesses  of  the  saints,  »v'e  firmly  hold 
it  to  be  an  article  of  faith,  that,  as  they  have  no  virtue  or  excel- 
lence but  what  has  been  gratuitously  bestowed  upon  them  by 
God,  for  the  sake  of  his  incarnate  Son,  Jesus  Christ,  so  they 
can  procure  no  benefit  for  us,  but  by  means  of  their  prayers  to 
the  Giver  of  all  good  gifts ^  through  their  and  our  common  Sa^ 
viour,  Jesus  Christ.  In  short,  they  do  nothing  for  us  mortals  io 
heaven,  but  what  they  did  while  they  were  here  on  earth,  and  what 
all  good  Christians  are  bound  to  do  ior  each  other,  namely, 
they  help  us  by  their  prayers.  The  only  difference  is,  that  ai 
the  saints  in  heaven  are  hee  from  every  '  -in  of  sin  a^nd  imper- 
fection, and  are  confirmed  in  grace  and  glory,  so  their  prayers 
are  far  more  efficacious  for  obtaining  what  they  ask  for,  than 
are  the  prayers  of  us  imperfect  and  sinful  mortals.  In  short, 
our  Protestant  bretliren  will  not  deny  that  St.  Paul  was  in  the 
practice  of  begging  for  the  prayers  of  the  churches  to  which  he 
addressed  his  epistles,  Rom.  xv.  30,  &lc.  and  that  the  Almighty 
himself  commanded  the  friends  of  Job  to  obtain  his  prayers  for 
the  pardon  of  their  sins,  Job  xlii.  8;  and  moreover,  that  they 
themselves  are  accustomed  to  pray  publicly  for  one  another. 
Now  tliese  concessions,  together  with  the  authorized  exposition, 
of  our  doctrine,  laid  down  above,  are  abundantly  sufficient  to^ 
refute  most  of  the  remaining  objections  of  Protestants  against 
it.  In  vain,  for  example,  does  Dr.  Porteus  quote  the  text  of  St. 
Paul,  1  Tim.  ii.  5,  There  is  one  Mediator  between  Godtand  men, 
the  man  Christ  Jesus;  for  we  grant  that  Christ  alone  is  the  Me' 
diaior  of  salvation ;  but  if  he  argues,  from  thence,  that  there  is 
BO  other  mediator  of.  intercession,  he  would  condemn  the  con- 

•  Pap.  Misrep.  Abrid^.  p.  78. 


Letter  XXXIIL  200 

duct  of  ft.  Paul,  of  Job's  friends,  and  of  his  own  church.  In 
vain  does  he  take  advantage  of  the  ambiguous  meaning  of  the 
word  worship,  in  Mat.  iv.  10  ;  because,  if  the  question  be  about 
a  divine  adoration,  we  restrain  this  as  strictly  to  God,  as  he  can 
do ;  but  if  it  be  about  merely  honouring  the  saints,  we  cannot 
censure  that,  without  censuring  other  passages  of  Scripture,* 
and  condemning  the  bishop  himself,  who  expressly  says,  "  The 
saints  in  heaven  we  love  and  honoury^  In  vain  does  he  quote 
Revel,  xix.  10,  where  the  angel  refused  to  let  St.  John  prostrate 
himself,  and  adore  him ;  because,  if  the  mere  act  itself,  inde- 
pendently of  the  evangelist's  mistaking  him  for  the  Deity,  was 
forbidden,  then  the  three  angels,  who  permitted  Abraham  to  ^ 
hoiv  himself  to  the  ground  before  them,  were  guilty  of  a  crime, 
Gen.  xviii.  2,  as  w^as  that  other  angel,  before  whom  Josuah  fell 
on  his  face  and  worshipped.  Jos.  v.  14. 

The  charge  o(  idolatry  against  Catholics,  for  merely  honour- 
ing those  whom  God  honours,  and  for  desiring  them  to  pray  to 
God  for  us,  is  too  extravagant,  to  be  any  longer  published  by 
Protestants  of  learning  and  character ;  accordingly  the  bishop 
of  Durham  is  content  with  accusing  us  of  blasphemy,  on  th« 
latter  part  of  thor  charge.  What  he  says  is  this:  "  It  is  blas- 
phemy, to  ascribe  to  angels  and  saints,  by  praying  to  them,  th« 
divine  attribute  of  universal  presence."};  To  say  nothing  of 
his  lordship's  new  invented  blasphemj^  I  should  be  glad  to  ask 
him,  how  it  follows,  from  my  praying  to  an  angel  or  a  saint  in 
any  place,  that  I  necessarily  believe  the  angel  or  saint  to  be  in 
that  place  ^  Was  Elisha  really  in  Syria  when  he  saw  the  am- 
bush prepared  there  for  the  king  of  Israel  ?  2  Kings  vi.  9. 
Again,  we  know  that  There  is  joy  before  the  angels  of  God  over 
one  sinner  that  repenteth,  Luke  xv.  10.  Now,  is  it  by  visual 
rays,  or  undulating  sounds,  that  these  blessed  spirits  in  heaven 
know  what  passes  in  the  hearts  of  men  upon  earth  ?  How  doe» 
his  lordship  know,  that  one  part  of  the  saint's  felicity  may  not 

♦  The  word  worship,  in  this  place,  is  used  for  supreme  divine  homage;  as  appears 
by  the  original  Greek:  whereas  in  St.  Luke  xiv.  10,  the  English  translators  make 
use  of  it  for  the  lowest  degree  of  respect:  Thou  shall  have  worship  in  the  presence  of 
them  that  sit  at  meat  xdth  thee.  The  latter  is  the  proper  meaning  of  the  Avord  Avor- 
ship,  as  appears  by  the  marriage  service  :  With  my  hody  I  thee  icorship,  and  by  \ha 
designation  of  the  lowest  order  of  magistrates,  his  worship  Mr.  Aldermaji  N. 
Nevertheless,  as  the  word  may  be  differently  interpreted.  Catholics  abstain  from 
applying  it  to  persons  or  things  inferior  to  God:  making  use  of  the  words  konow 
and  'veneration  in  their  regard  ;  words  wliich,  so  applied,  even  bishop  Porteus  ap- 
proves us.  Thus  it  appears,  that  the  heinous  charge  of  idolatiij  brought  against 
Catholics  for  their  respect  towards  the  saints,  is  grounded  on  nothing  but  tb«  mis^ 
taken  meaning  of  a  word  ! 

i  P  as.  :  Charge  1810,  p.  12. 

2D 


flO  Letter  XXXUI. 

consist  in  contemplating  the  wonderful  ways  of  God's  provi- 
dence with  all  his  creatures  here  on  earth?  But,  without  recur- 
ring to  this  supposition,  it  is  sufficient  for  dissipating  the  bi- 
shop's uncharitable  phantom  of  blasphemy,  and  Calvin's  profane 
jest  about  the  length  of  the  saint's  ears,  that  God  is  able  to  re- 
veal to  them  the  prayers  of  Christians  who  address  them  here 
on  earth.  In  case  I  had  the  same  opportunity  of  conversing 
with  this  prelate,  which  I  once  enjoyed,  I  should  not  fail  to 
make  the  following  observation  to  him :  my  lord,  you  publicly 
maintain,  that  the  act  of  praying  to  saints,  ascribes  to  them  the 
divine  attribute  of  universal  presence  ;  this  you  call  blasphemy : 
now  it  appears,  by  the  articles  and  injunctions  of  your  church, 
that  you  believe  in  the  existence  and  efficacy  of  "  sorceries,  en- 
chantments, and  witchcraft,  invented  by  the  devil,  to  procure 
his  counsel  or  help,"*  wherever  the  conjuror  or  witch  may 
chance  to  be ;  do  you,  therefore,  ascribe  the  divine  attribute  of 
universal  presence  to  the  devil?  You  must  assert  this,  or  you 
must  withdraw  your  charge  of  blasphemy  against  the  Catholics 
for  praying  to  the  saints. 

That  it  is  lawful  and  profitable  to  invoke  the  praj^ers  of  tire 
angels,  is  plain  from  Jacob's  asking  and  obtaining  the  angel's 
blessing,  with  whom  he  had  mystically  wrestled.  Gen.  xxxii. 
26,  and  from  his  invoking  his  own  angel  to  bless  Joseph's  sons, 
Gen.  xlvii.  16.  The  same  is  also  sufficiently  plain,  with  respect 
to  the  saints,  from  the  Book  of  Revelations,  where  tli^  four  and 
twenty  elders  in  heaven  are  said  to  have,  golden  vials  full  of 
odours,  ivhich  are  the  prayers  of  the  saints.  Rev.  v.  8.  The 
church,  however,  derived  her  doctrine  on  this  and  other  point* 
immediately  from  the  apostles,  before  any  part  of  the  New 
Testament  was  written.  The  tradition  was  so  ancient  and  uni- 
versal, that  all  those  Eastern  churches,  which  broke  off  from  tlie 
central  church  of  Rome,  a  great  many  ages  before  Protestantism 
was  heard  of,  perfectly  agree  with  us  in  honouring  and  invoking 
the  angels  and  saints.  I  have  said  that  the  patriarch  of  Pro- 
testantism, Martin  Luther,  did  not  find  any  thing  idolatrous  in 
the  doctrine  or  practice  of  the  church  with  respect  to  the  saints 
So  far  from  this,  he  exclaims,  "  Who  can  deny  that  God  worka 
great  miracles  at  the  tombs  of  the  saints  ?  I  therefore,  with 
the  whole  Catholic  church,  hold  that  the  saints  are  to  Be  honour- 
ed and  invocated  by  us."f     In  the  same  spirit  he  recommeodi 


^  Injunctions,  A.  1).  1559,     Bishop  Sparrow's  Collection,  p.  89.    Aitiele?,  ibki 
p.  180. 

t  In  Purg.  quoramd.  Artit.  Tom.  L     Gcrmet.  Ep.  ad  Gcorg.  SpalaL 


Letter  XXXIU.  2Ut 

this  devotion  to  dying  persons,  "  Let  no  one  omit  to  call  upon 
the  B.  Virgin  and  the  angels  and  saints,  that  they  may  inter- 
cede with  God  for  them  at  that  instant."*  I  may  add  that  se- 
yeral  of  the  brightest  lights  of  the  established  church,  such  as 
archbishop  Sheldon  and  the  bishops  Blandford,f  Gunning.J 
Montague,  Sic.  have  altogether  abandoned  the  charge  of  idola- 
try against  Catholics  on  this  head.  The  last  mentioned  of  them 
says,  ''  I  own  that  Christ  is  not  wronged  in  his  mediation.  It  is 
no  impiety  to  say,  as  they  (the  Catholics)  do,  Holy  Mary,  pray 
for  me  ;  Holy  Peter,  pray  for  me  ;"§  whilst  the  candid  preben- 
dary of  Westminster  warns  his  brethren  "  not  to  lead  people  by 
the  nose,  to  believe  they  can  prove  Papists  to  be  idolaters  when 
they  cannot."  II 

In  conclusion,  dear  sir,  you  will  observ^e  that  the  council  of 
Trent,  barely  teaches  that  it  is  good  and  profitable  to  invoke  the 
prayers  of  the  saints ;  hence  our  divines  infer  that  there  is  no 
positive  law  of  the  church,  incumbent  on  all  her  children  to 
pray  to  the  saints  ilT  nevertheless,  what  member  of  the  Catholic 
church  militant  will  fail  to  communicate  with  his  brethren  of 
the  church  triumphant?  What  Catholic,  believing  in  the 
communion  of  saints,  and  that  "  the  saints,  reigning  with  Christ 
pray  for  us,  and  that  it  is  good  and  profitable  for  us  to  invoke 
their  prayers,"  will  forego  this  advantage  !  How  sublime  and 
consoling!  how  animating  is  the  doctrine  and  practice  of  true 
Catholics,  compared  with  the  opinions  of  Protestants!  We 
hold  daily  and  hourly  converse,  to  our  unspeakable  comfort 
and  advantage,  with  the  angelic  choirs,  with  the  venerable  pa- 
triarchs and  prophets  of  ancient  times,  with  the  heroes  of 
Christianity,  the  blessed  apostles  and  martyrs,  with  the  bright 
ornaments  of  it  in  later  ages,  the  Bernards,  the  Xaviers,  the 
Teresas,  and  the  Sales's  :  they  are  all  members  of  the  Catholic 
church.  Why  should  not  you  partake  of  this  advantage?  Your 
soul,  you  complain,  dear  sir,  is  in  trouble;  you  lament  that 
your  prayers  to  God  are  not  heard:  continue  to  pray  to  him 
with  all  the  fervour  of  your  soul :  but  why  not  engage  his 
friends  and  courtiers  to  add  the  weight  of  their  prayers  to  your 
own?  Perhaps  his  Divine  Majesty  may  hear  the  prayers  of  the 
Jobs,  when  he  will  not  listen  to  those  of  an  Eliphaz,  a  Bildad, 


*  Luth.  Prep,  ad  Mort. 

t  See  Duchess  of  York's  Testimony  in  Brunswick*s  50  Reasona» 

t  Burnet's  Hist,  of  his  own  Times,  Vol.  i.  p.  437. 

^  Treat,  of  Invoc.  of  Saints,  p.  118. 

i  Thorndike,  Just  Weights,  p.  10. 

H  Petavius,  Suarez,  Wallenburg,  Muratori,  Nat  Alex. 


312  Letter  XXXIIL 

or  a  Zophar.  Job  xlii.     You  believe,  no  doubt,  that  you  have 
an  angel  guardian,  appointed  by  God  to  protect  you,  conform- 
ably to  what  Christ  said  of  the  children  presented  to  him  :  Their 
angels  do  always  behold  the  face  of  my  Father  who  is  in  heaven, 
Mat.  xviii.  10  ;  address  yourself  to  this  blessed  spirit  with  gra- 
titude, veneration,    and   confidence.     You   believe    also,   that, 
among  the  saints  of  God,  there  is  one  of  supereminent  purity 
and  sanctity,  pronounced  by  an  archangel  to  be,  not  only  gra- 
cious, but  "  full  of  grace;"  the  chosen  instrument  of  God  in 
the  incarnation  of  his  Son,  and  the  intercessor  with  this  her  Son, 
in  obtaining  his  first  miracle,  that  of  turning  water  into  wine,  at 
a  time,  when  his  "  time"  for  appearing  to  the  world  by  miracles, 
was  "  not  yet  come."  John  ii.  4.     "  It  is  impossible,"  as  one 
of  the  fathers  says,  "  to  love  the  son,  without  loving  the  mo- 
ther :"  beg  of  her,  then,  with  affection  and  confidence,  to  inter- 
cede with  Jesus,  as  the  poor  Canaanites  did,  to  change  the 
tears  of  your  distress  into  the  wine  of  gladness,  by  affording 
you  the  light  and  grace  you  so  much  w  ant.     You  cannot  re- 
fuse to  join  with  me  in  the  angelic   salutation  :   Hail  full  of 
grace,  our  Lord  is  with  thee,^  nor  in  the  subsequent  address  of 
the  inspired   Elizabeth  :  Blessed  art  thou  among  women,  and 
blessed  is  the  fruit  of  thy  womb,  Luke  i.  42  :  cast  aside,  then,  I 
beseech  you,  dear  sir,  prejudices,  which  are  not  only  ground- 
less but  also  hurtful,  and  devoutly  conclude  with  me,  in  the 
words  of  die  whole  Catholic  Church,  upon  earth  :  Holy  Mary^ 
mother  of  God,  pray  for  us  sinners,  now,  and  at  the  hcfur  of  our 
death.  Amen. 

I  am,  he, 

J.  M. 


♦  Luke  i.  28.  The  Catholic  version  is  here  used,  as  more  conformable  to  the 
Greek  as  well  as  the  Vulgate,  than  the  Protestant,  which  renders  the  passage:  Hail 
thou  who  art  highly  favoured. 


[213  ] 


LETTER  XXXIV. 
To  JAMES  BROWJV,  Esq. 

OX  RELIGIOUS  MEMORIALS, 

Dear  Sir, 
If  the  Catholic  church  has  been  so  grievously  injured  by  the 
misrepresentation  of  her  doctrine  respecting  prayers  to  the 
saints,  she  has  been  still  more  grievously  injured  by  the  prevail- 
ing calumnies  against  the  respect  which  she  pays  to  the  memo- 
rials of  Christ  and  his  saints,  namely  to  crucifixes,  relics,  pious 
pictures  and  images.  This  has  been  misrepresented,  from  al- 
most the  first  eruption  of  Protestantism,*  as  rank  idolatry,  and 
as  justifying  the  necessity  of  a  Reformation.  To  countenance 
guch  misrepresentation  in  our  own  country,  in  particular,  avari- 
cious courtiers  and  grandees  seized  on  the  costly  shrines, 
Btatues  and  other  ornaments  of  all  the  churches  and  chapels, 
and  authorized  the  demolition  or  defacing  of  all  other  rehgious 
memorials  of  whatever  nature  or  materials,  not  only  in  places 
of  worship,  but  also  in  market  places  and  even  in  private  houses. 
In  support  of  the  same  pious  fraud,  the  Holy  Scriptures  were 
corrupted  in  their  difierent  versions  and  editions,f  till  religious 

*"  Martin  Luther,  ■with  all  his  hatred  of  the  Catholic  church,  found  no  idolatry 
ift  her  doctrine  respecting  crosses  and  images :  on  the  contrary,  he  warmly  de- 
fended it  against  Carlostadius  and  his  associates,  who  had  destroyed  those  in  the 
diurches  of  Wittenberg.  Epist.  ad  Gasp.  Guttal.  In  the  titlepages  of  his  vo. 
lumes,  published  by  Melancthon,  Luther  is  exhibited  on  his  knees  before  a  cruci- 
fix. Queen  EUzabeth  persisted  for  many  years  in  retaining  a  crucifix  on  the  al- 
tar of  her  chapel,  till  some  of  her  Puritan  courtiers  engaged  Patch,  the  fool,  to 
break  it :  "  no  wiser  man,"  says  Dr.  Heylen,  (Hist,  of  Reform,  p.  124,)  "  daring  to 
undertake  such  a  service."  James  I.  thus  reproached  the  Scotch  bishops,  when 
they  objected  to  his  placing  pictures  and  statues  in  his  chapel  at  Edinburgh  :  "You 
can  endure  Lions  and  Dragons  (the  supporters  of  the  royal  arms)  and  Devils,  (Q. 
Elizabeth's  Griffins)  to  be  figured  in  your  churches,  but  will  not  allow  the  like 
place  to  patriarchs  and  apostles."  Spotswood's  History,  p.  5.30. 

t  See  in  the  present  English  Bible,  Colos.  iii,  5.  Covetousness  whichis  idolatry t 
this,  in  the  Bibles  of  1562,  1577,  and  1579,  stood  thus:  Covetousness  %nhich  is  the 
worshipping  of  images.  In  like  manner  where  we  read,  a  covetous  man,  who  is  an 
idolater,  in  the  former  editions  we  read,  a  covetous  man  which  is  a  xrorshipper  of 
idols.  Instead  of.  What  agreement  hath  the  temple  of  God  with  idols,  2  Cor.  vi.  16  : 
it  used  to  stand,  Hoio  agreeth  the  temple  of  God  with  images.  Instead  of.  Little  chil- 
dren keep  yourselves  from  idols,  1  John  v.  21  :  it  stood,  during  the  reigns  of  Edward 
end  Elizabeth,  Babes  keep  yourselves  from  images.  There  were  several  other  mani- 
Ibst  corruptions  in  this  as  well  as  in  otlier  points  in  the  ancient  Protestant  Bibk»i 
of  which  remain  in  the  present  verwoa. 


214  Letter  XXXIIL 

Protestants,  themselves,  became  disgusted  with  them,*  and 
loudly  called  for  a  new  translation.  This  was  accordingly 
made,  at  the  beginning  of  the  first  James's  reign.  In  short, 
every  passage  in  the  Bible,  and  every  argument  which  common 
sense  suggests  against  idolatry,  was  applied  to  the  decent  re- 
spect which  Catholics  show  to  the  memorials  of  Christianity. 

The  misrepresentation,  in  question,  still  continues  to  be  the 
cliosen  topic  of  Protestant  controvertists,  for  inflaming  the 
minds  of  the  ignorant  against  their  Catholic  brethren.  Accord- 
ingly, there  is  hardly  a  lisping  infant,  who  has  not  been  taught 
that  the  Romanists  pray  to  images,  nor  is  there  a  secluded  pea- 
sant who  has  not  been  made  to  believe,  that  the  Papists  worship 
wooden  gods.  The  Book  of  Homilies  repeatedly  affirms  that 
our  images  of  Christ  and  his  saints  are  idols  ;  that  we  "  pray 
and  ask  of  them  what  it  belongs  to  God  alone  to  give  ;  and  that 
"  images  have  beene  and  bee  worshipped,  and  so,  idolatry  com- 
mitted to  them  by  infinite  multitudes  to  the  great  offence  of 
God's  majestie,  and  danger  of  infinite  soules;  that  idolatrie  can 
not  possibly  be  separated  from  images  set  up  in  churches,  and 
that  God's  horrible  wrath,  and  our  most  dreadful  danger,  cannot 
be  avoided  without  the  destruction  and  utter  abolition  of  all  such 
images  and  idols  out  of  the  church  and  temple  of  God."f 
Archbishop  Seeker  teaches  that  "  The  church  of  Rome  has 
other  Gods,  besides  the  Lord,"  and  that  "  there  never  was 
greater  idolatry  among  heatiiens  in  the  business  of  in>age-wor- 
shipping  than  in  the  church  of  Rome."{  Bishop  Porteus, 
though  he  does  not  charge  us  with  idolatry,  by  name,  yet  he 
intimates  the  same  thing,  where  he  applies  to  us  one  of  the 
strongest  passages  of  Scripture  against  idol  worship  :  They  that 
make  them  are  like  unto  them  ;  and  so  is  every  one  that  trusteih 
in  them.      O  Israel,  trust  thou  in  the  Lord.  Ps.  cxiii.^^i 

Let  us  now  hear  what  the  Catholic   church   herself  has  so- 
lemnly pronounced  on  the  present  subject,  in  her  general  coun- 

*  See  the  account  of  what  passed  on  this  subject,  at  the  Conference  of  Hampton 
Court,  in  Fuller's  and  Collier's  Church  Histories,  and  in  Neal's  History  of  the  Pu- 
ritans. 

t  Apainst  the  Perils  of  Idol.  P.  iii.— This  admonition  was  quickly  carried  into 
eflect,  throughout  Kne^lund.  All  statues,  bas-relievos,  and  crosses,  were  demolish- 
ed  in  all  the  churches,  and  all  pictures  wei-e  defaced  ;  while  they  Continued  to 
hold  their  places,  as  they  do  still,  in  the  Protestant  churches  of  Germany.  At 
length  common  sense  rcffained  its  ri^^lits,  even  in  this  country.  Accordingly,  we 
see  the  cross  exalted  ut  the  lop  of  its  principal  church  (St.  Paul's,)  which  is  alsQ 
ornamented,  all  round  it,  with  the  statues  of  saints;  most  of  tiie  cathe<lrals  and 
collegiate  churches  now  contain  pictures,  and  some  of  them,  as  for  example, 
\Ve«tn»in8ter  Abbey,  carved  iiuai^es. 

I  Comment,  on  Ch.  Catech.  sect.  24.  §  P.  31. 


Letter  XXXIT  ,  21ft 

cil  of  Trent.  She  says,  "  The  images  of  Christ,  of  the  Virgin 
Mother  of  God,  and  the  other  saints,  are  to  be  kept  and  re- 
tained^ particularly  in  the  churches,  and  due  honour  and  vene- 
ration is  to  be  paid  them  :  not  that  we  believe  there  is  any  divi- 
nity or  power  in  them,  for  which  we  respect  them,  or  that  any 
thing  is  to  be  asked  of  them,  or  that  trust  is  to  be  placed  in  them, 
as  the  heathens  of  old  trusted  in  their  idols."*  In  conformity 
with  this  doctrine  of  our  church,  the  following  question  and 
answer  are  seen  in  our  first  catechism,  for  the  instruction  of 
children:  "Question:  May  we  pray  to  relics  or  images? 
Answer:  No;  by  no  means,  for  they  have  no  hfe  or  sense  to 
hear  or  help  us."  Finally,  that  work  of  the  able  Catholic  wri- 
ters Gother  and  Challoner,  which  I  quoted  above,  The  Papist 
Misrepresented  and  Represented,  contains  the  following  anathe- 
ma, in  which  I  am  confident  every  Catholic  existing  will  readily 
join,  "  Cursed  is  he  that  commits  idolatry ;  that  prays  to  im- 
ages or  relics,  or  worships  them  for  God.   Amen." 

Dr.  Porteus  is  very  positive  that  there  is  no  Scriptural  war- 
rant for  retaining  and  venerating  these  exterior  memorials,  and 
he  maintains  that  no  other  memorial  ought  to  be  admitted  than 
the  Lord's  Supper.f  Does  he  remember  the  ark  of  the  cove- 
nant, made  by  the  command  of  God,  together  with  the 
punishment  of  those  who  profaned  it,  and  the  blessing  bestow- 
ed on  those  who  revered  it  ?  And  what  was  the  ark  of  the 
covenant,  after  all  ?  A  chest  of  Settim  wood,  containing  the 
tables  of  the  law  and  two  golden  pots  of  manna ;  the  whole 
being  covered  over  by  two  carved  images  of  cherubims ;  in 
short,  it  was  a  memorial  of  God's  mercy  and  bounty  to  his 
people.  But,  says  the  bishop,  "  The  Roman  Cathohcs  make 
images  of  Christ  and  of  his  saints  after  their  own  fancy :  before 
these  images,  and  even  that  of  the  cross,  they  kneel  down  and 
prostrate  themselves :  to  these  they  lift  up  their  eyes,  and  in 
that  posture  they  pray."{  Supposing  all  this  to  be  true ;  has 
the  bishop  never  read,  that  when  the  Israelites  were  smitten  at 
Ai,  Joshua  fell  to  the  earth  upon  his  face,  before  the  ark  of  the 
Lordj  until  the  even  tide,  he  and  the  elders  of  Israel,  and  Joshua 
mid,  Mas,  O  Lord  God,  &rc.  Jos.  vii.  6.  Does  not  he  him- 
self oblige  those  who  frequent  the  above-mentioned  memorial, 
to  kneel  and  prostrate  themselves  before  it,  at  which  time  it  is 
to  be  supposed  they  lift  up  their  eyes  to  the  sacranieiit  and  say 
tlieir  prayers  ?  Does  not  he  require  of  his  people  that  "  when 
the  name  of  JESUS  is  prom 'uiced  in  any  lesson,  &c.  due  re- 

♦  Sess.  xxr.  t  P.  23.  }  Confut.  p.  27 


916  Letter  XXXIV. 

verence  be  made  of  all  with  lowness  of  courtesie  ?"*  And  does 
he  consider  as  well  founded,  the  outcry  of  idolatry  against  the 
established  church,  on  this  and  the  preceding  point,  raised  by 
the  dissenters?  Again,  is  not  his  lordship  in  the  habit  ot 
kneeling  to  his  majesty  and  of  bowing  with  the  other  peers,  to 
an  empty  chair  when  it  is  placed  as  his  throne  ?  Does  he  not 
often  reverently  kiss  the  material  substance  of  printed  paper  and 
leather,  I  mean  the  Bible,  because  it  relates  to  and  represents 
the  sacred  word  of  God  ?  When  the  bishop  of  London  shal) 
have  well  considered  these  several  matters,  methinks  he  will 
understand  the  nature  of  relative  honour,  by  which  an  inferior 
respect  may  be  paid  to  the  sign,  for  the  sake  of  the  thing  signi- 
fied, better  than  he  seems  to  do  at  present ;  and  he  will  neither 
directly  nor  indirectly  charge  the  Catholics  with  idolatry,  on 
account  of  indiflerent  ceremonies,  which  take  their  nature  from 
the  intention  of  those  who  use  them.  During  the  dispute  about 
pious  images,  which  took  place  in  the  eighth  century,  St. 
Stephen  of  Auxence,  having  endeavoured  in  vain  to  make  his 
persecutor,  the  emperor  Copronimus,  conceive  the  nature  of 
relative  honour  and  dishonour  in  this  matter,  threw  a  piece  of 
money,  bearing  the  emperor's  figure,  on  the  ground,  and  treat* 
ed  it  with  the  utmost  indignity ;  when  the  latter  soon  proved, 
by  his  treatment  of  the  saint,  that  the  affront  regarded  himself 
rather  than  the  piece  of  metal. f  i 

The  bishop  objects,  that  the  Catholics  "  make  pictures  of 
God  the  Father  under  the  likeness  of  a  venerable  old  man." 
Certain  painters  indeed  have  represented  him  so,  as  in  fact  he 
was  pleased  to  appear  so  to  some  of  the  prophets,  Isa.  vi.  1. 
Dan.  vii.  9 ;  but  the  council  of  Trent  says  nothing  concerning 
that  representation,  which,  after  all,  is  not  so  common  as  that 
of  a  triangle  among  Protestants,  to  represent  the  trinity.  Thug 
much,  however,  is  most  certain,  that  if  any  Christian  were  ob- 
stinately to  maintain,  that  the  divine  nature  resembles  the  hu- 
man form,  he  would  be  an  anthropomorphite  heretic.  The  bi- 
shop moreover  signifies,  what  most  other  Protestant  controvert- 
ists  express  more  coarsely,  that  to  screen  our  idolatry  we  have 
suppressed  the  second  commandment  of  the  Decalogue,  and  to 
make  up  the  deficiency,  we  have  split  the  tenth  comii|andment 
into  two.  My  answer  is,  that  I  apprehend  many  of  these  dis- 
putants are  ignorant  enough  to  believe  that  the  division  of  the 
commandments,  in  their  Common  Prayer  Book,  was  copied, 


♦  Injunctions,  A.  D.  1559,  n.  52.     Canons  1603,  n.  18. 

♦  Fleury,  Hbt  Eac.  L.  xliii.  n.  41- 


Letter  XXXIV,  2lT 

if  not  from  the  Identical  Tables  of  Moses,  at  least  from  his 
original  text  of  the  Pentateuch  ;  but  the  bishop,  as  a  man  of 
learning,  must  know  that  in  the  original  Hebrew,  and  in  the 
several  copies  and  versions  of  it,  during  some  thousands  of  years, 
there  was  no  mark  of  separation  between  one  commandment 
and  another;  so  that  we  have  no  rules  to  be  guided  by,  in 
making  the  distinction,  but  the  sense  of  the  context,  and  the 
authority  of  the  most  approved  fathers,*  both  which  we  follow. 
In  the  mean  time,  it  is  a  gross  calumny  that  we  suppress  any 
part  of  the  Decalogue ;  for  the  whole  of  it  appears  in  all  our 
Bibles,  and  in  all  our  most  approved  catechisms. f  To  be  brief, 
the  words.  Thou  shalt  not  make  to  thyself  any  graven  thing,  are 
either  a  prohibition  of  all  images,  and,  of  course,  those  round 
the  bishop's  own  cathedral  of  St.  Paul,  as  likewise  of  all  exist- 
ing coins ;  which  I  am  sure  he  will  not  agree  to  ;  or  else  it  is 
a  mere  prohibition  of  images  made  to  receive  divine  worship,  in 
which  we  perfectly  agree  with  him.  You  will  observe,  dear  sir, 
that  I  intend  to  include  I'elics,  meaning  things  which  have  some 
way  appertained  to  and  been  left  by  personages  of  eminent 
sanctity,  among  religious  memorials.  Indeed  the  ancient  fa- 
thers generally  call  them  by  that  name.  Surely  Dr.  Porteu* 
will  not  say  that  there  is  no  warrant  in  Scripture  for  honouring 
these,  when  he  recollects  that,  From  the  body  of  St.  Paul  were 
brought  unto  the  sick,  handkerchiefs  and  aprons,  and  the  diseases 
departed  from  them,  Acts  xix.  12  ;  and  that,  When  the  dead  man 
was  let  down  and  touched  the  bones  of  Elisha,  he  revived  and 
stood  upon  his  feet.  2  Kings  xiii.  21. 

But  to  make  an  end  of  the  present  discussion  :  nothing  but 
the  pressing  want  of  a  strong  pretext  for  breaking  communion 
with  the  ancient  church  could  have  put  the  revolters  upon  so 
extravagant  an  attempt  as  that  of  confounding  the  inferior  and 
relative  honour  which  Catholics  pay  to  the  memorials  of  Christ 
and  his  saints,  (an  honour  which  they  themselves  pay  to  th^ 
Bible-book,  to  the  name  of  JESUS,  and  even  to  the  king's 
throne)  with  the  idolatry  of  the  Israelites  to  their  golden  calf, 
Exod.  xxxii.  4,  and  of  the  ancient  heathens  to  their  idols,  which 
they  believed  to  be  inhabited  by  their  gods.  In  a  word,  the  end 
for  which  pious  pictures  and  images  are  made  and  retained  by 
Catholics,  is  the  same  for  which  pictures  and  images  are  made 
and  retained  by  manlund  in  general,  to  put  us  in  mind  of  th© 


*  St.  Augustin,  Quaest.  in  Exod.  Clem.  Alex.  Strom.  1.  vi.  Hieron,  in  Ps  xrtii 
t  Catech.  Roman  ad  Paroch.    The  folio  Catech.  of  Montpellier.  Douay  Catech. 
Abridgment  of  Cluristian  Doctrine. 

2E 


^18  Letter  XXXIV. 

persons  and  things  they  represent.  They  are  not  pnmarlly  in- 
tended for  the  purpose  of  beings  venerated  ;  nevertheless,  as  they 
bear  a  certain  relation  with  holy  persons  and  things,  by  repre- 
senting them,  they  become  entitled  to  a  relative  or  secondary 
veneration ;  in  the  manner  already  explained.  I  must  not  for- 
get one  important  use  of  pious  pictures,  mentioned  by  the  holj 
fathers,  namely,  that  they  help  to  instruct  the  ignorant.*  Still, 
it  is  a  point  agreed  upon  among  Catholic  doctors  and  divines, 
that  the  memorials  of  rehgion  form  no  essential  part  of  it.f 
Hence,  if  you  should  become  a  Catholic,  as  I  pray  God  you 
may,  I  shall  never  ask  you,  if  you  have  a  pious  picture  or  relic, 
or  so  much  as  a  crucifix  in  your  possession  :  but  then,  I  trust, 
after  the  declarations  I  have  made,  that  you  will  not  account  me 
an  idolater,  should  you  see  such  things  in  my  oratory  or  study, 
or  should  you  observe  how  tenacious  I  am  of  my  crucifix,  in 
particular.  Your  faith  and  devotion  may  not  stand  in  need  of 
such  memorials :  but  mine,  alas  !  do.  I  am  too  apt  to  forget 
what  my  Saviour  has  done  and  suffered  for  me ;  but  the  sight 
of  his  representation  often  brings  this  to  my  memory,  and 
affects  my  sentiments.  Hence  I  would  rather  part  with  most  of 
the  books  in  my  library,  than  with  the  figure  of  my  crucified 
Lord. 

I  am,  &^c. 

J.  M. 


*  St.  Gregory  calls  pictures  Idiotarum  Hbri.    Epist.  L.  ix.  9 

t  The  learned  Petavius  says :  "  We  must  lay  it  down  as  a  principle,  that  images 
are  to  be  reckoned  among  the  adiphora,  which  do  not  belong  to  the  substance  of 
religion,  and  which  the  church  may  retain  or  take  away  as  she  judges  best."  L. 
XV.  de  Incar.  Hence  Dr.  Hawarden,  Of  Images,  p.  353,  teaches  with  Delphinus, 
that  if  in  any  place,  tiiere  is  danger  of  real  idolatry  or  superstition  from  pictures, 
they  ought  to  be  removed  by  the  pastors  ;  as  .St.  Epiphanius  destroyed  a  certain 
pious  picture,  and  Ezcchias  destroyed  the  brazen  serpent. 


[     219     ] 


LETTER  XXXV. 

To  the  Rev.  ROBERT  CLAYTOJV,  M.  A. 

object  john's  aj^^wered, 

Rev.  Sir, 

I  LEARN  by  a  letter  from  our  worthy  friend,  Mr.  Brown,  as 
Well  as  by  your  own,  that  I  am  to  consider  you,  and  not  him, 
as  the  person  charged  to  make  the  objections,  which  are  to  be 
made,  on  the  part  of  the  church  of  England,  against  my  theo- 
logical positions  and  arguments  in  future.  I  congratulate  the 
society  of  New  Cottage  on  the  acquisition  of  so  valuable  a 
member  as  Mr.  Clayton,  and  I  think  myself  fortunate  in  having 
so  clear-headed  and  candid  an  opponent  to  contend  with,  as  hU 
letter  shows  him  to  be. 

You  admit,  that,  according  to  my  explanation,  which  is  no 
other  than  that  of  our  divines,  our  catechisms  and  our  councils 
in  general,  we  are  not  guilty  of  idolatry  in  the  honour  we  pay 
to  saints  and  their  memorials,  and  that  the  dispute  between 
your  church  and  mine  upon  these  points,  is  a  dispute  about 
words  rather  than  about  things,  as  bishop  Bossuet  observes, 
and  as  several  candid  Protestants,  before  you,  have  confessed. 
You  and  bishop  Porteus  agree  with  us,  that  "  the  saints  are  to 
be  loved  and  honoured ;  on  the  other  hand,  we  agree  with  you, 
that  it  would  be  idolatrous  to  pay  them  divine  worship,  or  to 
'pray  to  their  memorials  in  any  shape  whatever.  Hence,  the 
only  question  remaining  between  us  is  concerning  the  utility  of 
desiring  the  prayers  of  the  saints  :  for  you  say  it  is  useless,  be- 
cause you  think  that  they  cannot  hear  us,  and  that,  therefore, 
the  practice  is  superstitious  :  whereas,  I  have  vindicated  the 
practice  itself,  and  have  shown  that  the  utility  of  it  no  way  de- 
pends on  the  circumstance  of  the  blessed  spirits  immediately 
hearing  the  addresses  made  to  them. 

Still  you  complain  that  I  have  not  answered  all  the  bishop's 
objections  against  the  doctrine  and  practices  in  question.  My 
reply  is,  that  I  have  answered  the  chief  of  them  :  and  whereas 
they  are,  for  the  most  part,  of  ancient  date,  and  have  been  again, 
and  again  solidly  refuted  by  our  divines,  I  shall  send  to  New 
Cottage,  together  with  this  letter,  a  work  of  one  of  them,  who, 
for  depth  of  learning  and  strength  of  argument,  has  not  been 


«20  Letter  XXXV. 

surpassed  since  the  time  of  Bellarmin.*  There,  Rev.  sir,  you 
will  find  all  that  you  inquire  after,  and  you  will  discover,  in 
particular,  that  the  ivorship  of  the  angels,  which  St.  Paul  con- 
demns in  his  Epistle  to  the  Colossians,  chap.  ii.  18,  means,  that 
of  the  fallen  or  wicked  angels,  whom  Christ  despoiled,  ver.  15, 
and  which  was  paid  to  them  by  Simon  the  magician  and  his 
followers,  as  the  makers  of  the  world.  As  to  the  doctrine  of 
Bellarmin  concerning  images,  it  is  plain  that  his  lordship  never 
consulted  the  author  himself,  but  only  his  misrepresenter  Vi- 
tringa;  otherwise,  he  would  have  gathered  from  the  whole  ol 
i  this  precise  theologian's  distinctions,  that  he  teaches  precisely 
the  contrary  to  that  which  he  is  represented  to  teach. y 

You  next  observe,  that  I  have  said  nothing  concerning  the 
extravagant  forms  of  prayer  to  the  blessed  Virgin  and  other 
saints,  which  Dr.  Porteus  has  collected  from  Catholic  prayer 
books,   and  which,  you  think,  prove  that  we  attribute  an  abso- 
lute and  unbounded  power  to  those  heavenly  citizens.     I  am 
aware,  Rev.  sir,  that  his  lordship,  as  well  as  another  bishop, J 
who  is   all  sweetness   of  temper,   except  when  Popery  is  men- 
tioned in  his  hearing,  and  indeed  a  crowd   of  other  Protestant 
writers,  has  employed  himself  in  making  such  collections,  but 
from  what  sources,  for  the  greater  part  I  am  ignorant.     If  I 
were  to  charge  his  faiih,  or  the  faith  of  his  church  with  all  the 
conclusions  that  could  logically  be  drawn  from  diflerent  forms  ol 
prayer  to  be  met  with  in  the  books  of  her  most  distniguished 
prelates  and  divines,  or  from  the  Scriptures  themselves,  I  fancy 
the  bishop  would  strongly  protest  against  that  mode  of  reason- 
ing.    If,  for  example,   an   anthropomorphite  were  to  address 
him  :  you  say,  my  lord,  in  your  creed,  that  Christ  "  ascended 
into  heaven,  and  sitteth  at  the  right  hand  of  God,"  therefore  it 
is  plain  you  believe  with  me,  that  God  has  a  human  shape ;  or 
if  a  Calvinist  were  to   say  to  him.  You  pray  to  God  that  he 
"  would  not  lead  you  into  temptation,"  therefore  you  acknow- 
ledge that  it  is  God  who  tempts  you  to  commit  sin  :  in  either  of 
these  cases  the  bishop  would  insist  upon  explaining  the  texts 
here  quoted  ;  he  would  argue  on  the  nature  of  figures  of  speech, 
especially  in  the  language  of  poetry  and  devotion ;  and  would 

♦  The  true  church  of  Christ,  by  Edward  Hawarden,  DD.  S.  T.  P.  The  author 
was  engaged  in  successful  contests  with  Dr.  Clark,  bishop  Bull,  Mr.  Leslie,  and 
other  eminent  Protestant  divines.  The  work  has  been  lately  republished  in  Dub- 
lin by  Coyne. 

t  See  De  Imag.  L.  ii.  c.  24. 

t  The  bishop  of  Hereford,  Dr.  Huntingford,  who  has  squeezed  a  large  quantitf 
of  thia  irrelevant  matter  into  liis  examination  of  the  Catholic  Petition. 


Letter  XXXV.  SSI 

maintain,  that  the  belief  of  his  church  is  not  to  be  collected 
from  these,  but  from  her  defined  articles.  Make  but  the  same 
allowance  to  Catholics,  and  all  this  phantom  of  verbal  idolatry 
will  dissolve  into  air. 

Lastly,  you  remind  me  of  the  bishop's  assertion,  that  "  nei- 
ther images  nor  pictures  were  allowed  in  churches  for  the  first 
hundred  years."  To  this  assertion  you  add  your  own  opinion, 
that  during  that  same  period  no  prayers  were  addressed  by 
Christians  to  the  saints.  A  fit  of  oblivion  must  have  overtaken 
Dr.  Porteus  when  he  wrote  what  you  quoted  from  him,  as  he 
cannot  be  ignorant  that  it  was  not  till  the  conversion  of  Con- 
gtantine,  in  the  fourth  century,  that  the  Christians  were  general^ 
ly  allowed  to  build  churches  for  their  worship,  having  been 
obliged,  during  the  ages  of  persecution,  to  practice  it  in  subter- 
raneous catacombs,  or  other  obscure  recesses.  We  learn,  how- 
ever, from  Tertullian,  that  it  was  usual,  in  his  time,  to  repre- 
sent our  Saviour  in  the  character  of  the  good  shepherd,  on  the 
chalices  used  at  the  assemblies  of  the  Christians  :*  and  we  are 
informed  by  Eusebius,  the  father  of  church  history,  and  the 
friend  of  Constantine,  that  he  himself  had  seen  a  miraculous 
image  of  our  Saviour  in  brass,  which  had  been  erected  by  the 
woman,  who  was  cured  by  touching  the  hem  of  his  garment, 
and  also  diflerent  pictures  of  him,  and  of  St.  Peter  and  St. 
Paul,  which  had  been  preserved  since  their  time.f  The  histo- 
rian Zozomen  adds,  concerning  that  statue,  that  it  was  mutilated 
in  the  reign  of  Julian  the  apostate,  and  that  the  Christians, 
nevertheless,  collected  the  pieces  of  it,  and  placed  it  in  their 
church.  J  St.  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  who  flourished  in  the  fourth 
century,  preaching  on  the  martyrdom  of  St.  Theodore,  describes 
his  relics  as  being  present  in  the  church,  and  his  sufierings  as 
being  painted  on  the  walls,  together  with  an  image  of  Christ,  as 
if  surveying  them.§  It  is  needless  to  carry  the  history  of  pious 
figures  and  paintings  down  to  the  end  of  the  sixth  century,  at 
which  time  St.  Augustin  and  his  companions,  coming  to  preach 
the  Gospel  to  our  Pagan  ancestors,  "  carried  a  silver  cross  be- 
fore them  as  a  banner,  and  a  painted  picture  of  our  Saviour 
Christ."  II  The  above-mentioned  Tertullian  testifies,  that  at 
every  movement  and  in  every  employment,  the  primitive  Chris- 
tians used  to  sign  their  foreheads  with  the  sign  of  the  cross,ir 
and  Eusebius  and  St.  Chrysostom  fill  whole  pages  of  their 


•  Lib.  de  Pudicitia,c.  10.  t  Hist.L  vil.c.  18. 

X  Hist.  Eccles.  1.  v.  c.  21.  v  .  s.,  . .        §  Orat.  in  Theod. 

I  Bede's  Eccles.  HiaL  L  i.  c  25.  U  De  Coron.  Milit  c  X. 


Ml  Letter  XXXV. 

Works  with  testimonies  of  the  veneration  in  which  the  figure  of 
the  cross  was  anciently  held;  the  latter  of  whom  expressly  says, 
that  the  cross  was  placed  on  the  altars*  of  the  churches.  The 
whole  history  of  the  martyrs,  from  St.  Ignatius  and  St.  Poly- 
carp,  the  disciples  of  the  apostles,  whose  relics,  after  their  exe- 
cution, were  carried  away  by  the  Christians,  as  "  more  valuable 
than  gold  and  precious  stones,"f  down  to  the  latest  martyr, 
incontestibiy  proves  the  veneration  which  the  church  has  ever 
maintained  for  these  sacred  objects.  With  respect  to  your  own 
opinion,  Rev.  sir,  as  to  the  earliest  date  of  prayers  to  the  saints, 
I  may  refer  you  to  the  writings  of  St.  Irenseus,  the  disciple  of 
St.  Polycarp,  who  introduces  the  blessed  Virgin  praying  for 
Eve,  J  to  the  apology  of  his  contemporary  St.  Justin  the  martyr, 
who  says,  "  We  venerate  and  worship  the  angelic  host,  and  the 
spirits  of  the  prophets,  teaching  others  as  we  ourselves  have  been 
taught,"^  and  to  the  light  of  the  fourth  century,  St.  Basil,  who 
expressly  refers  these  practices  to  the  apostles,  where  he  says, 
"  I  invoke  the  apostles,  prophets,  and  martyrs  to  pray  for  me, 
that  God  may  be  merciful  to  me,  and  forgive  me  my  sins.  I 
honour  and  reverence  their  images,  since  these  things  have 
been  ordained  by  tradition  from  the  apostles,  and  are  practised 
in  all  our  churches." ||  You  will  agree  with  me,  that  I  need  not 
descend  lower  than  the  fourth  age  of  the  church. 

I  am,  &c. 

•J.  M. 

•  In  Orat,  QuodChristus  sit  Dens. 

f  Euseb.  Hist.  1.  iv.  c.  15.     Acta  Sincer.  Apud  Ruinart. 

%  Contra  Hxres.  1.  v.  c.  19.  §  Apol.  2.  prope  Init. 

I  Epist.  205.  t.  iii.  edit.  Paris. 


[223] 


LETTER  XXXVI. 
To  JAMES  BROIVJY,  Esq. 

f;JSr  TRJlXSUBSTA^TMTJOSr. 

Dear  Sir, 

It  is  the  remark  of  the  prince  of  modern  controvertists,  bi- 
shop Bossuet,  that,  whereas  in  most  other  subjects  of  dispute 
between  Cathohcs  and  Protestants,  the  diflercnce  is  less  than  it 
seems  to  be,  in  this  of  the  hol}^  eucharist  or  Lord's  Supper,  it  is 
greater  than  it  appears.*  The  cause  of  this  is,  that  our  op- 
ponents misrepresent  our  doctrine  concerning  the  veneration  of 
saints,  pious  images,  indulgences,  purgatory,  and  other  articles, 
in  order  to  strengthen  their  arguments  against  us;  whereas 
tlieir  language  approaches  nearer  to  our  doctrine  than  their 
sentiments  do  on  the  subject  of  the  eucharist,  because  our  doc- 
trine is  so  strictly  conformable  to  the  words  of  Holy  Scripture. 
This  is  a  disingenuous  artifice ;  but  I  have  to  describe  two 
others  of  a  still  more  fatal  tendency ;  first,  with  respect  to  the 
present  welfare  of  the  Catholics,  who  are  the  subjects  of  them, 
and  secondly,  with  respect  to  the  future  welfare  of  the  Protest- 
ants, who  deliberately  make  use  of  them.  ' 

The  first  of  these  disingenuous  practices  consists  in  misrepre- 
senting Catholics  as  ivorshippers  of  bread  and  wii\e  in  the  sacra- 
ment, and  therefore  as  idolaters,  at  tlie  same  time  that  our  ad- 
versaries are  perfectly  aware  that  we  firmly  believe,  as  an  ar- 
ticle of  faith,  that  there  is  no  bread  norivine,  but  Christ  alone, 
true  God,  as  well  as  man,  present  in  it.     Supposing,  for  a  mo- 
ment, that  we  are  mistaken  in  this  belief,  the  worst  we  could  be 
charged  with,  is  an  error,  in  supposing  Christ  to  be  where  he  is 
not;  and  nothing  but  uncharitable  calumny,  or  gross  inatten-~ 
tion,  could  accuse  us  of  the  heinous  crime  of  idolatry.     To  il- 
lustrate this  argument,  let  me  suppose,  that  being  charged  with 
a  loyal  address  to  the  sovereign,  you  presented  it,  by  mistake, 
to  one  of  his  courtiers,  or  even  to  an  inanimate  figure  of  him, 
which,  for  some  reason  or  other,  had  been  dressed  up  in  royal 
robes,  and  placed  on  the  throne,  would  your  heart  reproach 
you,  or  would  any  sensible  person  reproach  you  with  the  guilt 
of  treason  in  this  case.?     Were  the  people  who  thought  in  their 

^  Exposition  of  tho  doctrioe  of  the  Catholic  church,  Sect  zvi 


224  Letter  XXXVL 

hearts  that  John  the  Baptist  was  the  Christ,  Luke  iii.  15,  and 
who  probably  worshipped  him  as  such,  idolaters,  in  consequence 
of  their  error  ?  The  falsehood,  as  well  as  the  uncharitableness 
of  this  calumny  is  too  gros*  to  escape  the  observation  of  any 
informed  and  reflecting  man :  yet  is  it  upheld  and  vociferated 
to  the  ignorant  crowd,  in  order  to  keep  alive  their  prejudices 
against  us,  by  bishop  Porteus,*  and  the  Protestant  preachers 
and  writers  in  general,  and  it  is  perpetuated  by  the  legislature 
to  defeat  our  civil  claims  !f  It  is  not,  however,  true,  that  all 
Protestant  divines  have  laid  this  heavy  charge  at  the  door  of 
Catholics  for  worshipping  Christ  in  the  sacrament,  as  all  those  ■ 
eminent  prelates  in  the  reigns  of  Charles  I.  and  Charles  II,  must 
be  excepted,  who  generally  acquitted  us  of  the  charge  of  idola- 
try, and  more  especially  the  learned  Gunning,  bishop  of  Ely, 
who  reprobated  the  above  signified  declaration,  when  it  was 
brought  into  the  house  of  lords,  protesting  that  his  conscience 
would  not  permit  him  to  make  it.f  The  candid  Thorndyke, 
prebendary  of  Westminster,  argues  thus  on  the  present  subject: 
"  Will  any  Papist  acknowledge  that  he  honours  the  elements  of 
the  eucharist  for  God  ?  Will  common  sense  charge  him  with 
honouring  that  in  the  sacrament,  which  he  does  not  believe  to 
be  there  ?"§  The  celebrated  bishop  of  Down,  Dr.  Jeremy  Tay- 
lor, reasons  with  equal  fairness,  where  he  says,  "  The  object  of 
their  (the  Catholics')  adoration  in  the  sacrament  is  the  only 
true  and  eternal  God,  hj^postatically  united  with  his  Iroly  hu- 
manity, w4nch  humanity  they  believe  actually  present  under  the 
veil  of  the  sacrament.  And  if  they  thought  him  not  present, 
they  are  so  far  from  worshipping  the  bread,  that  they  profess  u 
idolatry  to  do  so.  This  is  demonstration  that  the  soul  has  no- 
thing in  it  that  is  idolatrical ;  the  will  has  nothing  in  it  but 
what  is  a  great  enemy  to  idolatry." || 

The  other  instance  of  disingenuity  and  injustice  on  the  part 
of  Protestant  divines  and  statesmen  consists  in  their  overlooking 
the  main  subject  in  debate,  namely,  whether  Christ  is  or  is  not 

♦  lie  charges  Catholics  with  "  senseless  idolatry,-?  and  with  worshipping  the 
creature  instead  of  the  Creator."  Confut.  P.  ii.  c.  1.  ^ 

t  The  Declaration  against  Popmj,  by  which  Catholics  were  excluded  frotn  the 
Houses  of  Parliament,  was  voted  by  them  during-  that  time  of  national  ^enzy  and 
disgrace,  wiien  they  equally  voted  the  reality  of  the  pretended  Popisii  Plot,  which 
cost  the  Catholics  a  torrent  of  innocent  blood,  and  which  was  liatched  by  the  un- 
principled Shaftesbury,  with  the  help  of  Dr.  Tongue,  and  the  infamous  Gates;  to 
prevent  the  succession  of  James  II.  to  the  crown.  See  Echard's  Hist.  North'3 
Exam. 

X  Burnet's  Hist.  Own  Times. 

^  Just  Weights  and  Measures,  c.  19» 

I  Liberty  of  Prophesyiog,  Sect.  20. 


Letter  XXXVL  226 

really  and  personally  present  in  the  sacrament ;  and  in  the  mean 
time  employing  all  the  force  of  their  declamation  and  ridicule, 
and  all  the  severity  of  the  law  to  a  point  of  inferior,  or  at  least 
secondary  consideration ;  namely,  to  the  mode  in  which  he  is 
considered  by  one  particular  party  as  being  present.     It  is  well 
known  that  Catholics  believe,  that,  when  Christ  took  the  bread 
and  gave  it  to  his  apostles,  saying,  THIS  IS  ]\IY  BODY,  he 
changed  the  bread  into  his  body,  which  change  is  called  tran- 
substantiation.     On  the  other  hand,  the  Lutherans,  after  their 
master,  hold  that  the  bread  and  the  real  body  of  Christ  are  vni- 
I'ed,  and  both  truly  present  in  the  sacrament,  as  iron  and  fire  are 
united  in  a  redhot  bar.*     Tliis  sort  of  presence,  wliich  would 
be  not  less  miraculous  and  incomprehensible  than  transubstan- 
tiation,  is  called  consubstantiation :  while  the  Calvinists   and 
church  of  England  men  in  general  (though  man}/  of  the  bright- 
est luminaries  of  the  latter  have  approached  to  the  Catholic  doc- 
trine) maintain  that  Christ  is  barely  present  in  figure,  and  re- 
ceived only  by  faith.     Now  all  the   alleged   absurdities,  in  a 
manner,  and  all  the  pretended  impiety  and  idolatry,  which  are 
attributed  to  transubstantiation,  equally  attaches  to  consubstan- 
tiation and  to  the  I'eal  presence  professed  by  those  eminent  di- 
vines of  the  established  church.     Nevertheless,  what  controver- 
sial preacher  or  writer  ever  attacks  the  latter  opinions  ?     What 
law   excludes  Lutherans  from  parliament,    or  even  from    the 
throne  ?     So  far  from  this,  a  chapel  royal  has  been  founded 
and  is  maintained  in  the  palace  itself  for  the  propagation  of 
their  consubstantiation  and  the  participation  of  their  real  pre- 
sence !     In  short,  you  may  say  with  Luther,  the  bread  is  the 
body  of  Christ,  or  with  Osiander,  the  bread  is  one  and  the  same 
person  with  Christ,  or  with  bishop  Cosin,  that  "  Christ  is  pre- 
sent really  and  substantially  by  an  incomprehensible  mystery,"f 
or  with  Dr.  Balguy,  that  there  is  no  mystery  at  all,  but  a  mere 
"  federal  rite,  barely  signifying  the  receiver's  acceptance  of  the 
benefit  of  redemption  ;"{  in  short,  you  may  say  any  thing  you 
please  concerning  the  eucharist,  without  obloquy  or  inconveni- 
ence to  yourself,  except  what  the  words  of  Christ,  this  is  my 
body,  so  clearly  imply,  namely,  that  he  changes  the  bread  into 
his  body.     In  fact,  as  the  bishop  of  Meaux  observes,  "  the  de- 
clarations of  Christ  operate  what  they  express  ;  when  he  speaks, 
nature  obeys,  and  he  does  what  he  says :  thus  he  cured  the 

''  ♦  De  Capt.  Babyl.  Osiander,  whose  sister,  Cranmer  married,  taught  Tmpanation^ 
or  an  hypostatical  and  personal  union  of  the  bread  with  Christ's  body,  in  conse- 
quence of  which  a  person  might  truly  say :  This  bread  is  Christ's  body. 
t  Hist  of  Transub.  p.  44.  t  Charge  vii. 

SF 


226  Letter  XXXVU. 

ruler's  son,  by  saying  to  him,  Thy  son  Uveth;  and  the  crooked 
woman,  by  saying-,  Thou  art  loosed  from  thy  infirmity. ^^*  The 
prelate  adds,  for  our  further  observation,  that  Christ  did  not 
say.  My  body  is  here ;  this  contains  my  body,  but,  this  is  my 
body :  this  is  my  blood.  Hence  Zuinglius,  Calvin,  Beza,  and 
the  defenders  of  the  figurative  sense  in  general,  all  except  the 
Protestants  of  England,  have  expressly  confessed,  that,  admit- 
ting the  real  presence,  the  Catholic  doctrine  is  far  more  con- 
Ibrmable  to  Scripture  than  the  Lutheran.  I  shall  finish  this  let« 
tcr  with  remarking,  that,  as  transubstantiation,  according  to  bi- 
shop Cosin,  was  the  first  of  Christ's  miracles  in  changing  water 
into  wine ;  so  it  may  be  said  to  have  been  his  last,  during  his 
mortal  course,  by  changing  bread  and  wine  into  his  sacred  body 
and  blood. 

I  am,  &tc. 

J.  M. 


LETTER  XXXVII. 
To  JAMES  BROWJV,  Esq. 

0 

O^r  THE  REAL  PRESE^TE  OF  CHRIST  JJ^  THE  B. 
SACRAMENT. 

Dear  Sir, 
It  is  clear  from  what  I  have  stated  in  my  last  letter  to  you, 
that  the  first  and  main  question  to  be  settled  between  Catholics 
and  church  Protestants  is  concerning  the  real  or  figurative  pre- 
sence  of  Christ  in  the  sacrament.  This  being  determined,  it 
will  be  time  enough,  and,  in  my  opinion,  it  will  not  require  a 
long  time,  to  conclude  upon  the  manner  of  his  presence,  namely, 
whether  by  consubstantiation  or  transulDStantiation.  To  con- 
sider the  authorized  exposition  or  catechism  of  the  established 
church,  it  might  appear  certain  that  she  herself  holds  the  real 
presence;  since  she  declares,  that  "  The  body  and^blood  of 
Christ  are  verily  and  indeed  taken  and  received  by  the  faithful 
in  the  Lord's  Supper."  To  this  declaration  I  alluded,  in  the 
first  place,  wliere  I  complained  of  Protestants  disguising  their 
real  tenets^  by  adopting  language  of  a  different  meaning  from 

•  Variat  T.  u.  p.  34. 


Letter  XXXVII.  227 

their  sentiments,  and  conformable  to  those  of  Catholics,  in  con- 
sequence of  such  being  the  language  of  the  sacred  text.  In  fact, 
it  is  certain  and  confessed,  that  she  does  not,  after  all,  believe 
the  real  body  and  blood  to  be  in  the  supper,  but  mere  bread 
and  wine,  as  the  same  catechism  declares.  This  involves  an 
evident  contradiction  ;  it  is  saying,  you  receive  that  in  the  sacra- 
ment, ivhich  does  not  exist  in  the  sacrnmcnt  ;*  it  is  like  the  speech 
of  a  debtor,  who  should  say  to  his  creditor,  I  hereby  verily  and 
indeed  pay  you  the  money  I  oiue  you;  but  I  have  not  verily  and 
indeed  the  money  to  pay  you  with. 

Nothing  proves  more  clearly  the  fallacy  of  the  Calvinists  and 
other  dissenters,  as  likewise  of  the  established  church  men  in 
general,  who  profess  to  make  the  Scripture,  in  its  plain  and 
literal  sense,  the  sole  rule  of  their  faith,  than  their  denial  of  the 
real  presence  of  Christ  in  the  sacrament,  which  is  so  manifestly 
and  emphatically  expressed  therein.  He  explained  and  pro- 
mised this  divine  myster}^  near  one  of  the  Paschs,  John  vi.  4, 
previous  to  his  institution  of  it.  He  then  multiplied  five  loaves 
and  two  fishes,  so  as  to  aflbrd  a  superabundant  meal  to  five 
tliousand  men,  besides  women  and  children.  Mat.  xiv.  21  ; 
which  was  an  evident  sign  of  the  future  multiplication  of  his 
own  body  on  the  several  altars  of  the  world ;  after  which  he 
took  occasion  to  speak  of  this  mystery,  by  saying,  /  am  the  liv- 
ing bread,  which  came  down -from  heaven.     If  any  man  eat  of 


*  Dryden,  in  his  Hind  and  Panther,  ridicules  this  inconsistency  as  follows : 
"  The  literal  sense  is  hard  to  flesh  and  blood  ; 
"  But  nonsense  never  could  be  understood." 
Even  Dr.  Hey  calls  this  "  an  unsteadiness  of  language  and  a  seeming  inconsist- 
ency."    Lect.  vol.  iv.  p.  338. 

N.  B.  It  is  curious  to  trace  in  the  Liturgy  of  the  Established  church  her  variations 
on  this  most  important  point  of  Christ's  presence  in  the  sacrament.  The  first 
communion  service,  drawn  up  by  Cranmcr,  Ridley,  and  other  Protestant  bishops 
and  divines,  and  pubhshed  in  1548,  clearly  expresses  the  real  presence,  and  that 
"  the  whole  body  of  Christ  is  received  under  each  particle  of  the  sacrament." 
Burnet,  P.  ii.  b.  1. 

Afterwards,  when  the  Calvinistic  party  prevailed,  the  29th  of  the  42  Articles  of 
Religion,  drawn  up  by  the  same  prelates  and  publislied  in  1552,  expressly  denies 
the  real  presence,  and  the  very  possibility  of  Christ  being  in  the  Eucharist,  since 
he  has  ascended  up  to  heaven.  Ten  years  afterwards,  Elizabeth  being  on  the 
thron*  .  who  patronized  the  real  presence,  (see  Heylin,  p.  124,)  when  the  42  Arti- 
cles were  reduced  to  39,  this  declaration  against  the  real  and  corporal  presence  of 
Christ  was  l^ft  out  of  the  Common  Prayer  Book,  for  the  purpose  of  comprehend- 
ing those  persons  who  believed  in  it,  as  was  the  whole  of  tiic  former  rubric,  which 
explained  that  "  by  kneeling  at  the  sacrament  no  adoration  was  intended  to  any 
corporal  presence  of  Christ's  natural  flesh  and  blood."  Burnet,  P.  ii.  p.  392.  So 
the  liturgy  stood  for  just  100  years,  when,  in  1662,  during  the  reign  of  Charles  II. 
among  other  alterations  of  the  liturgy,  Avhich  then  took  place,  the  old  rubric 
against  the  real  presence  and  tlie  adoration  of  the  sacrament  was  again  restored  aa 
it  stands  at  present ! 


528  Letter  XXXVIL 

this  bread,  he  shall  live  for  ever :  and  the  bread  that  I  will  give ^ 
is  my  flesh,  for  the  life  of  the  world.  John  vi.  51.  The  sacred 
text  goes  on  to  inform  us  of  the  perplexity  of  the  Jews,  from 
their  understanding  Christ's  words  in  their  plain  and  natural 
sense,  which  he,  so  far  from  removing  by  a  diflerent  explanation, 
confirms  by  expressing  that  sense  in  other  terms  still  more  em- 
phatlcal.  TAe  Jews  therefore  strove  amongst  themselves,  saying. 
How  can  this  man  give  us  his  flesh  to  eat  ?  Then  Jesus  said  unto 
them:  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you:  except  ye  eat  the  flesh  of  the 
son  of  man,  and  drink  his  blood,  ye  have  no  life  in  you. — For 
my  flesh  is  meat  indeed,  and  my  blood  is  drink  indeed.  Ver.  52, 
53,  55.  Nor  was  it  the  multitude  alone  who  took  offence  at 
this  mystery  of  a  real  and  corporal  reception  of  Christ's  person, 
so  energetically  and  repeatedly  expressed  by  him,  but  also 
several  of  his  own  beloved  disciples,  whom  certainly  he  would 
not  have  permitted  to  desert  him  to  their  own  destruction,  if  he 
could  have  removed  their  difficulty  by  barely  telling  them  that 
they  were  only  to  receive  him  by  faith,  and  to  take  bread  and 
wine  in  remembrance  of  him.  Yet  this  merciful  Saviour  per- 
mitted them  to  go  their  ways,  and  he  contented  himself  with 
asking  the  apostles,  if  they  would  also  leave  him.  They  were 
as  incapable  of  comprehending  the  mystery  as  the  others  were, 
but  they  were  assured  that  Christ  is  ever  to  be  credited  upon 
his  word,  and  accordingly  they  made  that  generous  act  of  faith, 
which  every  true  Christian  will  also  make,  who  serioVisly  and 
devoutly  considers  the  sacred  text  before  us.  Many  therefore  of 
his  disciples,  when  they  had  heard  this,  said :  This  is  a  hard  say^ 
ing :  who  can  hear  it  ?  From  that  time  many  of  his  disciples 
went  back  and  walked  no  more  with  him.  Then  Jesus  said  unto 
the  twelve :  will  ye  also  go  away  ?  Then  Simom  Peter  answered 
him:  Lord,  to  whom  shall  we  go  ?  thou  hast  the  words  of  eternal 
life.  Ver.  60,  66,  67,  68. 

The  apostles  thus  instructed  by  Christ's  express  and  repeated 
declaration,  as  to  the  nature  of  this  sacrament,  when  he  pro- 
mised it  to  them,  were  prepared  for  the  sublime  simplicity  of 
his  words  in  instituting  it.  For,  whilst  they  were  at  supper,  Je- 
sus  took  bread,  and  blessed  it,  and  brake  it,  and  gave  it  to  the  dis- 
ciples, and  said:  take  ye  and  eat :  THIS  IS  MY  BOI^Y.  And 
taking  the  chalice,  he  gave  thanks,  and  gave  it  to  them,  saying : 
drink  ye  all  of  this;  FOR  THIS  IS  I\'lY  BLOOD  OF  THE 
NEW  TESTAMENT,  WHICH  SHALL  BE  SHED  FOR 
MANY  UNTO  THE  REMISSION  OF  SINS.  Mat.  xxvi. 
20,  27,  28.  This  account  of  St.  IMatthew  is  repeated  by  St. 
Mark,  xiv.  22,  23,  24,  and,  nearly  word  for  word,  by  St.  Luke, 


Letter  XKXVn.  229 

xxn,  19,  20,  and  St.  Paul,  1  Cor,  xi.  23,  24,  25  ;  who  adds : 
Therefore  whoever  shall  eat  this  bread,  or  drink  the  chalice  or 
the  Lord  unworthily,  shall  be  guilty  of  the  body  and  of  the  blood 
of  the  Lord — and  eateih  and  drinketh  judgment  (the  Protestant 
Bible  says  damnation)  to  himself.   1  Cor.  xi.  27,  29. 

To  the  native  evidence  of  these  texts  I  shall  add  but  two 
words.  First,  supposing  it  possible  that  Jesus  Christ  had  de- 
ceived the  Jews  of  Capharnaum,  and  even  his  disciples  and  his 
very  apostles,  in  the  solemn  asseverations  which  he,  six  times 
over,  repeated  of  his  real  and  corporal  presence  in  the  sacra- 
ment, when  he  promised  to  institute  it ;  can  any  one  believe 
that  he  would  continue  the  deception  on  his  dear  apostles  in 
the  very  act  of  instituting  it  ?  and  when  he  was  on  the  point  of 
leaving  them  ?  in  short,  when  he  was  bequeathing  them  the 
legacy  of  his  love  ?  In  the  next  place,  what  propriety  is  there 
in  St.  Paul's  heavy  denunciations  of  profaning  Christ's  person, 
and  of  damnation,  on  the  part  of  unworthy  communicants,  if 
they  partook  of  it  only  by  faith  and  in  figure  ?  for,  after  all,  the 
Paschal  Lamb,  which  the  people  of  God  had,  by  his  command, 
every  year  eat  since  their  deliverance  out  of  Egypt,  and  which 
the  apostles  themselves  eat,  before  they  received  the  blessed  eu- 
charist,  was,  as  a  mere  figure,  and  an  incitement  to  faith,  far 
more  striking,  than  eating  and  drinking  bread  and  wine  are : 
hence  the  guilt  of  profaning  the  Paschal  Lamb,  and  the  nume- 
rous other  figures  of  Christ,  would  not  be  less  heinous  than  pro- 
faning the  sacrament,  if  he  were  not  really  there. 

I  should  write  a  huge  folio  volume,  were  I  to  transcribe  all 
the  authorities  in  proof  of  the  real  presence  and  transubstantia- 
tion  which  may  be  collected  from  the  ancient  fathers,  councils 
and  historians,  anterior  to  the  origin  of  these  doctrines  assigned 
by  the  bishops  of  London*  and  Lincoln.  The  latter,  who 
speaks  more  precisely  on  the  subject,  says,  "  The  idea  of 
Christ's  bodily  presence  in  the  eucharist  was  first  started  in  the 
beginning  of  the  eighth  century.  In  the  twelfth  century,  the 
actual  change  of  the  bread  and  wine  into  the  body  and  blood  of 
Christ,  by  the  consecration  of  the  priest,  was  pronounced  to  be 
a  Gospel  truth.  The  first  writer  who  maintained  it  was  Pasca- 
sius  Radbert.  It  is  said  to  have  been  brought  into  England  by 
Lanfranc."f  What  will  the  learned  men  of  Europe,  who  are 
versed  in  ecclesiastical  literature,  think  of  the  state  of  this  sci- 
ence in  England,  should  they  hear  that  such  positions  as  these, 
have  been  published  by  one  of  its  most  celebrated  prelates .''     1 

♦  Page  38.  t  Elem.  of  TheoL  vol.  u.  p.  380. 


230  Letter  XXXVIL 

have  assigned  the  cause  why  I  must  content  myself  with  a  fexe 
of  the  numberless  documents  which  present  themselves  to  me  in 
refutation  of  such  bold  assertions.     St.  Ignatius,  then,  an  apos- 
tolical bishop  of  the  first  century,  describing  certain  contempo- 
rary heretics,  says,  "  They  do  not  admit  of  eucharists  and  ob- 
lations, because  they  do  not  believe  the  eucharist  to  be  the  flesh 
of  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  who  suflered  for  our  sins."*     I 
pass  over  the  testimonies,  to  the  same  effect,  of  St.  Justin  mar- 
tyr,! ^^-  Ii'en9eus,J    St.  Cyprian,§    and  other  fathers  of  the 
second  and  third  centuries ;  but  will  quote  the  following  words 
from  Origen,  because  the  prelate  appeals  to  his  authority,  in 
another  passage,  which  is  nothing  at  all  to  the  purpose.     He 
says,  then,  "  Manna  was  formerly  given,  as  a  figure ;  but  now, 
the  flesh  and  blood  of  the  Son  of  God  is  specifically  given,  and 
is  real  food."||     I  must  omit  the  clear  and  beautiful  testimonies 
for  the  Catholic  doctrine,  which  St.  Hilary,  St.  Basil,  St.  John 
Chrysostom,  St.  Jerom,  St.  Austin,  and  a  number  of  other  il- 
lustrious doctors  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  ages  furnish ;  but  I  can- 
not pass  over  those  of  St.  Cyril  of  Jerusalem  and  St.  Ambrose 
of  Milan,  because  these  occurring  in  catechetical  discourses  or 
expositions  of  the  Christian  doctrine  to  their  young  neophytes, 
mus.t  evidently  be  understood  in  the  most  plain  and  literal  sense 
^hey  can  bear.    The  former  says,  "  Since  Christ  himself  aflirms 
thus  of  the  bread.  This  is  my  body ;  who  is   so  daring  as   to 
doubt  of  it?     And  since  he  aflirms.  This  is  my  blood  f  who  will 
deny  that  it  is  his  blood  ?     At  Cana  of  Galilee,  he,  by  an  act 
of  his  will,  turned  water  into  wine,  which  resembles  blood  ;  and 
is  he  not  then  to  be  credited  when  he  changes  wine  into  blood.'' 
Therefore,  ftdl  of  certainty,  let  us  receive  the  body  and  blood 
of  Christ:  for,  under  the  form  of  bread,  is  given   to  thee  his 
body,  and,  under  the  form  of  wine,  his  blood. "IF     St.  Ambrose 
thus  argues  with  his  spiritual  children,  "  Perhaps  you  will  say, 
Why  do  you  tell  me  that  I  receive  the  body  of  Christ,  when  I 
see  quite  another  thing  ?  We  have  this  point  therefore  to  prove. 
How  many  examples  do  we  produce  to  show  you,  that  this  is 
not  what  nature  made  it,  but  what  the  benediction  has  conse- 
crated it ;  and  that  the  benediction  is  of  greater  force  than  na- 
ture,  because,   by   the  benediction,    nature  itself  is  y^hanged ! 
Moses  cast  his  rod  on  the  ground,  and  it  became  a  serpent ;  he 
caught  hold  of  the  serpent's  tail,  and  it  recovered  the  nature  of 
a  rod.     The  rivers  of  Egypt,  &lc.     Thou  hast  read  of  the  crea- 

*  Ep.  ad  Smyrn.  t  Apolog.  to  Emp.  Antonin.  X  L.  v.  c.ll. 

4  Ep.  54  ad  Cornel  |i  Horn.  7.  in  Lcvit,  U  Catecli.  Mystagog.  4r 


Letter  XXXVIL  231 

tion  of  the  world :  If  Christ,  by  his  word,  was  able  to  make 
something  out  of  nothing,  shall  he  not  be  thought  able  to  change 
one  thing  into  another  ?"*  But  I  have  quoted  enougli  from 
the  ancient  fathers  to  refute  the  rash  assertions  of  the  two  mo- 
dern bishops. 

True  it  is  that  Pascasius  Radbert,  an  abbot  of  the  ninth  cen* 
tur}^,  writing  a  treatise  on  the  eucharist,  for  the  instruction  of 
his  novices,  maintains  the  real  corporal  presence  of  Christ  in  it  j 
but  so  far  from  teaching  a  novelty,  he  professes  to  say  nothing 
but  what  all  the  world  believes  and  professes. f  The  truth  of 
this  appeared,  when  Berengarius,  in  the  eleventh  century, 
among  other  errors,  denied  the  real  presence ;  for  tlien  the 
whole  church  rose  up  against  him  :  lie  was  attacked  by  a  whole 
host  of  eminent  writers,  and  among  others  by  our  archbishop 
Lanfranc;  all  of  whom,  in  their  respective  works,  appeal  to  the 
belief  of  all  nations  ;  and  Berengarius  was  condemned  in  no  less 
than  eleven  councils.  I  have  elsewhere  shown  the  absolute  im- 
possibility of  the  Christians  of  all  the  nations  in  the  world  being 
persuaded  into  a  belief,  of  that  sacrament  which  they  were  in 
the  habit  of  receiving,  being  the  hving  Christ,  if  they  had  be- 
fore held  it  to  be  nothing  but  an  inanimate  memorial  of  him; 
though,  even  b}'  another  impossibility,  all  the  clergy  of  the  na- 
tions were  to  combine  together  for  eflecting  this.  On  the  other 
hand  it  is  incontestible,  and  has  been  carried  to  the  highest  de- 
gree of  moral  evidence,  J  that  all  the  Christians  of  all  the  na- 
tions of  the  world,  Greeks  as  well  as  Latins,  Africans  as  well  as 
Europeans,  except  Protestants  and  a  handful  of  Vaudois  pea- 
sants have,  in  all  ages,  believed  and  still  believe  in  the  real 
presence  and  transubstantiation. 

I  am  now,  dear  sir,  about  to  produce  evidence  of  a  different 
nature,  I  mean  Protestant  evidence,  for  the  main  point  under 
consideration,  the  real  presence.  My  first  witness  is  no  other 
than  the  father  of  the  pretended  Reformation,  Martin  Luther 
himself.  He  tells  us  how  very  desirous  he  was,  and  how  much 
he  laboured  in  his  mind  to  overthrow  this  doctrine,  because, 
says  he,  (observe  his  motive,)  "  I  clearly  saw  how  much  I 
should  thereby  injure  Popery  ;  but  I  found  myself  caught,  with- 
out any  way  of  escaping :  for  the  text  of  the  Gospel  was  too 
plain  for  this  purpose."^  Hence  he  continued,  till  his  death,  to 

*  De  his  qui  Myst.  Init.  c.  9. 

t  "  Quod  totus  orbis  credit  et  confitetnr."     See  Perpetuit/-  de  la  Foi. 

X  See  in  particular  the  last  named  victorious  work,  which  has  proved  the  cod- 
Tersion  of  many  Protestants,  and  amon?  the  rest  of  a  distinjvuished  churoliman  now 
UyiDg.  ^  Epist.  ad  Argentea.  tora.  4.  fol.  502.  Kd.  Witteru 


232  Letter  XXXVU. 

condemn  those  Protestants  who  denied  the  corporal  presence, 
employing  for  this  purpose  sometimes  the  shafts  of  his  coarse 
ridicule,^  and  sometimes  the  thunder  of  his  vehement  declama- 
tion and  anathemas. f  To  speak  now  of  former  eminent  bi- 
shops and  divines  of  the  establishment  in  this  country ;  it  is 
evident  from  their  works  that  many  of  them  believe  firmly  in  the 
real  presence,  such  as  the  bishops  Andrews,  Bilson,  Morton, 
Laud,  ]\Iontague,  Sheldon,  Gunning,  Forbes,  Bramhall  and 
Cosin,  to  whom  I  shall  add  the  justly  esteemed  divine,  Hooker, 
the  testimonies  of  whom,  for  the  real  presence,  are  as  explicit 
,  as  Catholics  themselves  can  wish  them  to  be.  I  will  transcribe 
in  the  margin  a  few  words  from  each  of  the  three  last  named 
authors. J  The  near,  or  rather  close  approach  of  these  and 
other  eminent  Protestant  divines  to  the  constant  doctrine  of  the 
Catholic  church,  on  this  principal  subject  of  modern  contro- 
versy, is  evidently  to  be  ascribed  to  the  perspicuity  and  force 
of  the  declaration  of  Holy  Scripture  concerning  it.  As  to  the 
holy  fathers,  they  received  this,  with  her  other  doctrines,  from 
the  apostles,  independently  of  Scripture :  for,  before  even  St, 
3Iatthew's  Gospel  was  promulgated,  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass 
was  celebrated,  and  the  body  ard  blood  of  Christ  distributed  to 
the  faithful  throughout  a  gi-eatp.iit  of  the  known  world. 

In  finishing  this  letter  I  must  make  an  important  remark  on 

*  In  one  place  he  says,  that  "  The  Devil  seems  to  have  mocked  thSse,  to  whom 
he  has  suggested  a  heresy  so  ridiculous  and  contrary  to  Scripture,  as  that  of  the 
ZuingUans,"  who  explained  aAvay  the  words  of  the  institution  in  a  figurative  way. 
He  elsewhere  compares  these  glosses  with  the  following  translation  of  the  first 
"Words  of  Scripture  :  In  principio  Deus  creavit  cceluin  et  teri'am : — In  the  beginning 
the  cuckoo  eat  the  sparroio  and  his  feathers.  Def  Verb.  Dom. 

t  On  one  occasion  he  calls  those  who  deny  the  real  and  corporal  presence;  "A 
damned  sect,  lying  heretics,  bread-breakers,  wine-drinkers,  and  soul-destroyers." 
In  Parv.  Catech.  On  other  occasions  he  says  :  "  They  are  indevilized  and  super- 
devilized."  Finally  he  devotes  them  to  everlasting  flames,  and  builds  his  own 
hopes  of  finding  mercy  at  the  tribunal  of  Christ  on  his  having,  with  all  his  soul, 
condemned  Carlostad,  Zuinglius,  and  other  believers  in  the  sj-mbolical  presence. 
'  X  Bishop  Bramhall  writes  thus :  "  No  genuine  son  of  the  church  (of  England) 
did  ever  deny  a  true,  real  presence.  Christ  said  :  This  is  my  body,  and  Avhat  he 
said  we  steadfastly  believe.  He  said  neither  CON  nor  SUB  nor  TRANS  :  there- 
fore we  place  these  among  the  opinions  of  schools,  not  among  articles  of  faith." 

Answer  to  Militiaire,  p.  74. Bishop  Cosin  is  not  less  explicit  in  favour  of  the 

Catholic  doctrine.  lie  says  :  "  It  is  a  monstrous  error  to  deny  that  Christ  is  to  be 
adored  in  the  eucharist.  We  confess  the  necessity  of  a  supernatural  ^d  heavenly 
change,  and  that  the  signs  cannot  become  sacraments  but  by  the  infimte  power  of 
God.  If  any  one  make  a  bare  figure  of  the  sacrament,  we  ought  not  to  suffer  hinx 
in  our  churches."  Hist,  of  Transub.  Lastly,  the  profound  Hooker  expresses 
himself  thus  ;  "  I  wish  men  would  give  themselves  more  to  meditate,  with  silence,  on 
what  we  have  in  the  sacrament,  and  less  to  dispute  of  the  manner  how.  Sith  we 
ail  agree  that  Christ,  by  the  sacrament,  doth  really  and  truly  perform  in  us  his 
promise,  why  do  we  vainly  trouble  ourselves  with  so  fierce  contentions  whethw 
bj  coDsubstantiatioD,  or  else  by  transubataDtiation  7"    £ccles.  Polit.  B.  v.  67. 


Letter  XXXVIL  233 

the  object  or  end  of  the  institution  of  the  blessed  sacrament  r 
this  our  divine  master  tells  us  was  to  communicate  a  new  and 
special  grace,  or  life^  as  he  calls  it,  to  us  his  disciples  of  the 
new  law.  The  bread  that  I  will  give  is  my  flesh,  for  the  life  of 
the  world.  As  the  living  Father  hath  sent  me,  and  I  live  by  the 
Father ;  so  he  that  eateth  me,  the  same  shall  also  live  by  me. 
This  is  the  bread  that  came  down  from  heaven :  not  as  your  fa- 
thers did  eat  manna,  and  are  dead:  he  that  eateth  this  bread 
shall  live  for  ever.  John  vi.  52,  58,  59.  He  explains,  in  the 
same  passage,  the  particular  nature  of  this  spiritual  life,  and 
shows  in  what  it  consists,  namely,  in  an  intimate  union  with  him, 
where  he  says,  He  that  eateth  my  flesh,  and  drinketh  my  blood, 
abideth  in  me  and  1  in  him.  Ver.  57.  Now  the  servants  of  God, 
from  the  beginning  of  the  world,  had  striking  figures  and  me- 
morials of  the  promised  Messiah,  the  participation  of  which,  by 
faith  and  devotion,  was,  in  a  limited  degree,  beneficial  to  their 
souls ;  such  were  the  tree  of  life,  the  various  sacrifices  of  the 
patriarchs  and  those  of  the  Mosaic  Law,  but  more  particularly 
the  Paschal  Lamb,  the  loaves  of  proposition,  and  the  manna  of 
which  Christ  here  speaks :  still,  these  signs,  in  their  very  insti- 
tution, were  so  many  promises,  on  the  part  of  God,  that  he 
would  bestow  upon  his  people  the  thing  signified  by  them  ;  even 
that  incarnate  Deity,  who  is  at  once  our  victim  and  our  food, 
and  who  gives  spiritual  life  to  the  worthy  communicants,  not 
m  a  limited  measure,  but  indefinitely,  according  to  each  one's 
preparation.  The  same  tender  love  which  made  him  shroud 
the  rays  of  his  divinity  and  take  upon  himself  the  form  of  a  ser- 
vant, and  the  likeness  of  man,  in  his  incarnation;  and  become  as 
a  worm  and  not  a  man,  the  reproach  of  men  and  the  outcast  of 
the  people,  in  his  immolation  on  Mount  Calvary,  has  caused 
him  to  descend  a  step  lower,  and  to  conceal  his  human  nature 
also,  under  the  veils  of  our  ordinary  nourishment,  that  thus  we 
may  be  able  to  salute  him  with  our  mouths  and  lodge  him  in 
our  breasts;  in  order  that  we  may  thus,  each  one  of  us,  abide 
in  him  and  he  abide  in  us,  for  the  life  of  our  souls.  No  won- 
der that  Protestants,  who  are  strangers  to  these  heavenly  truths, 
and  who  are  still  immersed  In  the  clouds  of  types  and  figures, 
not  pretending  to  any  thing  more  in  their  sacrament,  than  what 
the  Jews  possessed  in  their  ordinances,  should  be  comparatively 
so  indifferent,  as  to  the  preparation  for  receiving  It,  and,  indeed, 
as  to  the  reception  of  it  at  all !    No  wonder  that  many  of  them, 

2  G 


254  Letter  XXXVni 

and  among  thereatAnthonyUlric,  duke  of  Brunswick,*  should 
have  reconciled  tliemselves  to  the  Catholic  church,  chiefly  for 
the  benefit  of  exchanging  the  figure  for  the  substance ;  the  bare 
memorial  of  Christ,  for  his  adorable  body  and  blood. 

I  am,  Sic. 

J.M. 


LETTER  XXXVIII. 
To  the  Rev.  ROBERT  CLAYTON,  M.  A. 

OBJECTIONS  JXSWERED. 

Rev,  Sir, 

Though  I  had  not  received  the  letter  with  which  you  have 
honoured  me,  it  was  my  intention  to  write  to  Mr.  Brown,  by 
way  of  answering  bishop  Porteus's  objections  against  the  Ca- 
tholic doctrine  of  the  blessed  eucharist.  As  you,  Rev.  sir,  have 
in  some  manner  adopted  those  objections,  I  address  my  answer 
to  you. 

You  begin  with  the  bishop's  arguments  from  Scripture,  and 
say,  that  the  same  divine  personage  who  says.  Take,  eat,  this  is 
my  body,  elsewhere  calls  himself  a  door  and  a  vine :  hence  you 
argue,  that,  as  the  two  latter  terms  are  metaphorical,  so  the 
first  is  also.  I  grant  that  Christ  makes  use  of  metaphors  when 
he  calls  himself  a  door  and  a  vine ;  but  then  he  explains  that 
they  are  metaphors,  by  saying,  I  am  the  door  of  the  sheep,  hy 
me  if  any  man  enter  he  shall  he  saved,  John  x.  9 ;  and  again,  / 
am  the  vine,  you  the  branches :  he  that  ahideth  in  me,  and  I  in 
him,  beareth  much  fruit :  for  without  me  you  can  do  nothing. 
John  XV.  5.  But,  in  the  institution  of  the  sacrament,  though  he 
was  then  making  his  last  Avill,  and  bequeathing  that  legacy  to 
his  children  which  he  had  in  his  promise  of  it  assured  them 
should  me  meat  indeed,  amd  drink  indeed  ;  not  a  worj  falls  from 
him  to  signify  that  his  legacy  is  not  to  be  understood  in  the 
plain  sense  of  the  terms  he  makes  use  of.  Hence  those  incre- 
dulous Christians,  who  insist  on  allegorizing  the  texts  in  ques- 
tion, (professing  at  the  same  time  to  make  the  plain  natural 

♦  Lettres  d'un  Docteut  Allcmand,  pap  Sciieffinackfer,  vd.  i.  p.  393. 


I 


Letter  XXXVIIL  236 

jense  of  Scripture  their  only  rule  of  faith,)  may  allegoric  every 
other  part  of  the  Holy  Writ,  as  ridiculously  as  Luther  has 
translated  the  first  words  of  Genesis  ;  and  thus  gain  no  certain 
knowledge  from  any  part  of  it.  His  lordship  adds,  that  the 
apostles  did  not  understand  this  institution  literally,  as  they 
asked  no  questions,  nor  expressed  any  surprise  concerning  it. 
True,  they  did  not :  but  then  they  had  been  present  on  a  for- 
mer occasion,  at  a  scene  in  which  the  Jews,  and  even  many  of  the 
disciples,  expressed  great  surprise  at  the  annunciation  of  this 
mystery,  and  asked,  How  can  this  man  give  us  his  flesh  to  eat'/ 
On  that  occasion  we  know  that  Clirist  tried  the  faith  of  his 
apostles,  as  to  this  mystery  ;  when  they  generously  answered, 
Lord,  to  whom  shall  we  go  ?  Thou  hast  the  words  of  eternal 
life. 

You  may  quote,  after  Dr.  Porteus,  Christ's  answer  to  the 
murmur  of  the  Jews  on  this  subject:  Doth  this  offend  you9  If 
then  you  shall  see  the  Son  of  Man  ascend  up  where  he  was  be- 
fore 9  It  is  the  spirit  that  quickeneth  ;  the  flesh  proflteth  nothing. 
The  words  that  I  have  spoken  to  you  are  spirit  and  life.  John  vi. 
63,  64.  To  this  I  answer,  that  if  there  were  an  apparent  con- 
tradiction between  this  passage  and  those  others  in  the  same 
chapter,  in  which  Christ  so  expressly  affirms,  that  his  flesh  is 
MEAT  INDEED,  and  his  blood  drink  indeed,  it  would  only  prove 
more  clearly  the  necessity  of  inquiring  into  the  doctrine  of  the 
Catholic  church  concerning  them.  But  there  is  no  such  ap- 
pearance of  contradiction ;  on  the  contrary,  our  controvertist* 
draw  an  argument  from  the  first  pari  of  this  passage,  in  favour 
of  the  real  presence.*  The  utmost  that  can  be  deduced  from 
the  remaining  part  is,  that  Christ's  inanimate  flesh,  manducated, 
like  that  of  animals,  according  to  the  gross  idea  of  the  Jews, 
would  not  confer  the  spiritual  life  which  he  speaks  of:  though 
some  of  the  fathers  understand  these  words,  not  of  the  body 
and  blood  of  Christ,  but  of  our  unenlightened  natural  reason, 
in  contradistinction  to  inspired  faith,  in  which  sense  Christ  says 
to  St.  Peter,  Bkssed  art  thou,  because  flesh  and  blood  has  not 
revealed  this  ta  thee,  but  my  Father  who  is  in  heaven.  Mat.  xvi. 
17.  You  B.dd  from  St  Luke,  that  Christ  says  in  the  very  insti- 
tution, Do  this  in  memory  of  me.  Luke  xxii.  19.  I  answer, 
thatineither  here  is  there  any  contradiction  :  for  the  eucharist  is 
both  a  memorial  of  Christ  and  the  real  presence  of  Christ. 
When  a  person  stands  visibly  before  us,  we  have  no  need  of  any 
sign  to  call  him  to  our  memory ;  but  if  he  were  present  in  such 

*  Verity  dela  Relig.  Cat.  prouvte  par  rEcriture,  par  M.  Des  Mahis,  p.  163. 


236  Ltiter  XXXVIH, 

manner  as  to  be  concealed  from  all  our  senses,  without  a  me- 
morial  of  him,  we  might  as  easily  forget  him,  as  if  he  were  at  a 
great  distance  from  us.  These  words  of  Christ,  then,  which  we 
always  repeat  at  the  consecration,  and  the  very  sight  of  the 
sacramental  species,  serve  for  this  purpose. 

The  objections,  however,  which  you.  Rev.  sir,  and  bishop 
Porteus  chiefly  insist  upon,  are  the  testimony  of  our  senses. 
You  both  say,  the  bread  and  wine  are  seen,  and  touched,  and 
tasted,  in  our  sacrament,  the  same  as  in  yours.  "  If  we  cannot 
believe  our  senses,"  the  bishop  says,  "  we  can  believe  nothing." 
This  was  a  good  popular  topic  for  archbishop  Tillotson,  from 
whom  it  is  borrowed,  to  flourish  upon  in  the  pulpit,  but  it  will 
not  stand  the  test  of  Christian  theology.  It  would  undermine 
the  incarnation  itself.  With  equal  reason  the  Jews  said  of 
Christ,  Is  not  this  the  carpenter'' s  son  ?  Is  not  his  mother  called 
Mary  9  Mat.  xiii.  55.  Hence  they  concluded  that  he  was  not 
what  he  proclaimed  himself  to  be,  the  Son  of  God.  In  like 
manner,  Josuah  thought  he  saw  a  man,  Josuah  v.  13,  and  Jacob, 
that  he  touched  one.  Gen.  xxxii.  24,  and  Abraham  that  he  eal 
with  three  men.  Gen.  xviii.  8,  when  in  all  these  instances  there 
were  no  real  men,  but  unbodied  spirits,  present ;  the  difterent 
senses  of  those  patriarchs  misleading  them.  Again,  were  not 
the  eyes  of  the  disciples,  going  to  Emmaus,  held  so  that  they 
should  not  know  Jesus^  Luke  xxiv.  16.  Did  not  the  same 
thing  happen  to  Mary  Magdalen  and  the  apostles .?  John  xx.  15. 
But  independently  of  Scripture,  philosophy  and  experience 
show  that  there  is  no  essential  connexion  between  our  sensations 
and  the  objects  which  occasion  them,  and  that,  in  fact,  each  of 
our  senses  frequently  deceives  us.  How  unreasonable  then  is 
it,  as  well  as  impious,  to  oppose  theit  fallible  testimony  to  God's 
infallible  word  !* 

But,  the  bishop,  as  you  remind  me,  uMertakes  to  show  that 
there  are  absurdities  and  contradictions  in  i\ie  doctrine  of  tran- 
substantiation  ;  he  ought  to  have  said  of  the  real  presence :  for 
every  one  of  his  alleged  contradictions  is  equally  found  in  the 
Lutheran  consubstantiation,  in  the  belief  of  which  our  gracious 
queen  was  educated,  and  in  the  corporal  presence,  held  by  so 

♦  For  example,  we  think  we  see  the  setting  sun  in  a  line  with  our  eyes,  but  phi- 
losophy demonstrates  that  a  large  portion  of  the  terraqueous  globe,  is  interposed 
between  them,  and  that  the  sun  is  18  degrees  below  the  horizon.  As  we  trust 
more  to  our  feeling  than  to  any  other  sense  :  let  any  person  cause  his  neighbour 
to  shut  his  eyes,  and  then  crossing  the  two  first  fingers  of  either  hand,  make  him 
rub  a  pea,  or  any  other  round  substance  between  them,  he  will  then  protest  that 
he  feels  two  such  ol^eets. 


Letter  XXXVIU.  237 

many  English  bishops.     He  accordingly  asks  how  Christ's 
body  can  be  contracted  into  the  space  of  a  host  ?     How  it  can 
be  at  the  right  hand  of  his  Father  in  heaven,  and  upon  our  al- 
tars at  the  same  time?  &ic.     I  answer,  first,  with  an  ancient  fa- 
ther, that  if  we  insist  on  using  this  HOW  of  the  Jews,  with  re- 
spect to  the  mysteries  revealed  in  Scripture,  we  must  renounce 
our  faith  in  it.*    2dly,  I  answer  that  we  do  not  know  what  con- 
stitutes the  essence  of  matter  and  of  space.     I  say,  3dly,  that 
Christ  transfigured  his  body,  on  Mount  Thabor,  Mark  ix.  1, 
bestowing  on  it  many  properties  of  a  spirit,  before  his  passion, 
and  that  after  he  had  ascended  up  to  heaven,  he  appeared  to  St.  ^ 
Paul  on  the  road  to  Damascus,  Jlds  ix.  17,  and  stood  by  him  in 
the  Castle  of  Jerusalem,  Acts  xxiii.  1 1 .     Lastly,  I  answer,  that 
God  fills  all  space,  and  is  whole  and  entire  in  every  particle  of 
matter ;  likewise,  that  my  own  soul  is  in  rhy  right  hand  and  my 
left,  whole  and  entire  ;  that  the  bread  and  wine,  which  I  eat  and 
drink,  are  transubstantiated  into  my  own  flesh  and  blood ;  that 
this  body  of  mine,  which  some  years  ago  was  of  a  small  size,  has 
now  increased  to  its  present  bulk ;  that  soon  it  will  turn  into 
dust,  or  perhaps  be  devoured  by  animals  or  cannibals,  and  thus 
become  part  of  their  substance,  and  that,  nevertheless,  God  will 
restore  it  entire,  at  the  last  day.     Whoever  will  enter  into  these 
considerations,  instead  of  employing  the  Jewish  HOW,  will  be 
disposed  with  St.  Austin,  to  "  admit  that  God  can  do  much 
more  than  we  can  understand,"  and  to  cry  out  with  the  apostles, 
respecting  this  mystery  :  Lord,  to  whom  shall  we  go  ?     Thou 
hast  the  words  of  eternal  life. 

I  am,  &€. 

J.  M. 


*  Cjril.  Alex.  L  4,  in  Joan. 


if 

LETTER  XXXIX. 
To  MMES  BROWJV,  Esq, 

COMMUmOJf  UJ^DER  OJV£  KIJ^D. 

Dear  Sir, 

I  TRUST  you  have  not  forgotten,  what  I  demonstrated  in  the 
first  part  of  our  correspondence,  that  the  Catholic  church  was 
formed  and  instructed  in  its  divine  doctrine  and  rites,  and  espe- 
cially in  its  sacraments  and  sacrifice,  before  any  part  of  the 
New  Testament  was  published,  and  whole  centuries  before  the 
entire  New  Testament  was  collected  and  pronounced  by  her  to 
be  authentic  and  inspired.  Indeed,  Protestants  are  forced  to 
have  recourse  to  the  tradition  of  the  church,  for  determining  a 
great  number  of  points  which  are  left  doubtful  by  the  Sacred 
Text,  particularly  with  respect  to  the  two  sacraments,  which 
they  acknowledge.  From  the  doctrine  and  practice  of  the 
church  alone,  they  learn,  that  though  Christ,  our  pattern,  was 
baptized  in  a  river,  Mark  i.  9,  and  the  Ethiopian  eunuch  was 
led  by  St.  Philip  into  the  water,  Acts  viii.  38,  for  the  same  pur- 
pose, the  application  of  it  by  infusion  or  aspersion  is  VcUid,  and 
that,  though  Christ  says.  He  that  BELIEVETH  and  is  hap- 
tized  shall  he  saved,  Mark  xvi.  16,  infants  are  susceptible  of  the 
benefits  of  baptism,  who  are  incapable  of  making  an  act  of  faith. 
In  like  manner  respecting  the  eucharist,  it  is  from  the  doctrine 
and  practice  of  the  church  alone,  Protestants  learn,  that  though 
Christ  communicated  the  apostles,  at  an  evening  supper,  after 
they  had  feasted  on  a  lamb,  and  their  feet  had  been  washed,  a 
ceremony  which  he  appears  to  enjoin  on  that  occasion  with  the 
utmost  strictness,  John  xiii.  8,  15,  none  of  these  rites  are  essen- 
tial to  that  ordinance,  or  necessary  to  be  practised  at  present. 
With  what  pretension  to  consistency  can  they  reject  her  doctrine 
and  practice  in  the  remaining  particulars  of  this  mysterious  in- 
stitution ?  A  clear  exposition  of  the  institution  itself,  and  of 
the  doctrine  and  discipline  of  the  church,  concerning  tne  con- 
troversy in  question,  will  aflbrd  the  best  answer  to  the  objections 
raised  against  the  latter. 

It  is  true  that  our  1^.  Saviour  instituted  the  holy  eucharist 
under  two  kinds ;  but  it  must  be  observed  that  he  then  made  it 
a  iacrifice  as  well  as  a  sacrament^  and  that  he  ordained  priesU^ 


Letter  XXXIX.  2^ 

namely,  his  twelve  apostles,  (for  none  else  but  they  were  preseit 
on  the  occasion)  to  consecrate  this  sacrament  and  offer  this 
sacrifice.  Now,  for  the  latter  purpose,  namely,  a  sacrifice,  it 
was  requisite  that  a  victim  should  be  really  present,  and,  at 
least,  mystically  immolated,  which  was  then,  and  is  still,  per- 
formed in  the  mass,  by  the  symbolical  disunion,  or  separate 
consecration  of  the  body  and  the  blood.  It  was  requisite,  also, 
for  the  completion  of  the  sacrifice,  that  the  priests  who  had  im- 
molated the  victim,  by  mystically  separating  its  body  and  its 
blood,  should  consummate  it  in  both  these  kinds.  Hence  it  is 
seen,  that  the  command  of  Christ,  on  which  our  opponents  lay 
so  much  stress,  drink  ye  all  of  this,  regards  the  apostles,  as 
priests,  and  not  the  laity,  as  communicants.*  True  it  is,  that 
when  Christ  promised  this  sacrament  to  the  faithful  in  general, 
he  promised,  in  express  terms,  both  his  body  and  his  blood, 
John  vi. :  but  this  does  not  imply  that  they  must,  therefore,  re- 
ceive them  under  the  different  appearances  of  bread  and  wine. 
For  as  the  council  of  Trent  teaches,  "  He  who  said.  Unless  you 
shall  eat  the  flesh  of  the  Son  of  Man  and  drink  his  blood,  you 
shall  not  have  life  in  you,  has  likewise  said.  If  any  one  shall  eat  of 
this  bread,  he  shall  live  for  ever.  And  he  who  has  said,  Whoso 
eateth  my  flesh,  and  drinketh  my  blood,  hath  life  everlasting,  has 
also  said.  The  bread  which  I  will  give,  is  my  flesh,  for  the  life  of 
the  world.  And  lastly,  he  who  has  said.  He  ivho  eateth  my  flesh, 
and  drinketh  my  blood,  abideth  in  me  and  I  in  him :  has  never- 
theless said.  He  who  eateth  this  bread  shall  live  for  ei'er."f 

The  truth  is,  dear  sir,  after  all  the  reproaches  of  the  bishop 
of  Durham  concerning  our  alleged  sacrilege,  in  suppressing  half 
a  sacrament,  and  the  general  complaint  of  Protestants^of  our 
robbing  the  laity  of  the  cup  of  salvation, |  that  the  precious  body 
and  blood,  being  equally  and  entirely  present  under  each  spe- 
cies, is  equally  and  entirely  given  to  the  faithful,  whichever  they 
receive :  whereas  the  Calvinists  and  Anglicans  do  not  so  much 
as  pretend  to  communicate  either  the  real  body  or  the  blood;  but 
present  mere  types  or  memorials  of  them.  I  do  not  deny,  that,^i 
in  their  mere  figurative  system,  there  may  be  some  reason  for  * 

*  The  acute  Apologist  of  the  Quakers  has  observed,  how  inconclusively  Protest- 
ants argue  from  the  words  of  the  institution.  He  says :  "  I  would  gladly  know- 
how,  from  the  words,  they  can  be  certainly  resolved  that  these  words  (Do  this) 
must  be  understood  of  the  clergy.  Take,  bless,  and  break  this  bread,  and  give  it 
to  others;  but  to  ihe  laity  only:  Take  and  eat,  but  do  not  bless,"  &c.  Barclay's 
Apology,  Prop.  xiii.  p.  7. 

t  Sess.  xxi.  c.  1. 

t  Conformably  to  the  above  doctrine,  neither  our  priests  nor  our  bishops  re- 
ceive under  more  than  one  kind,  when  they  do  not  offer  ud  the  holy  sacrifice. 


240    .  Letter  XXXIX, 

receiving  the  liquid  as  well  as  the  solid  substance,  since  the 
former  may  appear  to  represent  more  aptly  the  blood,  and  the 
latter  the  body ;  but  to  us  Catholics,  who  possess  the  reality  of 
them  both,  their  species  or  outward  appearance  is  no  more  than 
a  matter  of  changeable  discipline. 

It  is  the  sentiment  of  the  great  lights  of  the  church,  St. 
Chrysostom,  St.  Austin,  St.  Jerom,  he.  and  seems  clear  from 
the  text,  that  when  Christ,  on  the  day  of  his  resurrection,  took 
bread,  and  blessed  and  brake,  and  gave  it  to  Cleophas  and  the 
other  disciple,  whose  guest  he  was  at  Emmaus,  on  his  doing 
which  their  eyes  were  opened,  and  they  knew  him,  and  he  vanish" 
ed  out  of  their  sight,  Luke  xxiv.  30,  31,  he  administered  the 
holy  communion  to  them  under  the  form  of  bread  alone.  In 
like  manner,  it  is  written  of  the  baptized  converts  of  Jerusalem, 
that,  they  were  persevering  in  the  doctrine  of  the  apostles,  and 
in  the  communication  of  the  BREAKIJVG  OF  BREAD,  and 
in  prayer.  Acts  ii.  42 ;  and  of  the  religious  meeting  at  Troas  : 
on  the  first  day  of  the  week,  when  we  were  assembled  to  BREAK 
BREAD,  Acts  xx.  7,  without  any  mention  of  the  other  species. 
These  passages  plainly  signify  that  the  apostles  were  accustom- 
ed, sometimes  at  least,  to  give  the  sacrament  under  one  kind 
alone,  though  bishop  Porteus  has  not  the  candour  to  confess  it. 
Another  more  important  passage  for  communion  under  either 
kind  he  entirely  overlooks,  where  the  apostle  says,  Whosoever 
shaU  eat  this  bread,  OR  drink  the  chalice  of  the  Lord  unworthi- 
ly, shall  be  guilty  of  the  body  and  the  blood  of  the  Lord,*  True 
it  is,  that  in  the  English  Bible,  the  text  is  here  corrupted,  the 
conjunctive  AND  being  put  for  the  disjunctive  OR,  contrary  to 
the  original  Greek,  as  well  as  to  the  Latin  Vulgate,  to  the  ver- 
sion of  Beza,  &£c. ;  but  as  his  lordship  could  not  be  ignorant  of 


*  H  ir»»yi,  or  drink,  1  Cor.  xi.  27.  The  ReV.  Mr.  Grier,  who  has  attempted  to 
vindicate  the  purity  of  the  English  Protestant  Bible,  has  nothing  else  to  say  for 
this  alteration  of  St.  Paul's  Epistle,  than  that  in  what  they  falsely  call  "  the  paral- 
lel texts  of  Luke  and  Matthew,"  the  conjunctive  and  occurs !  Grier's  Answer  to 
Ward's  Errata,  p.  13.  I  may  here  notice  the  horrid  and  notorious  misrepresenta- 
tion of  the  Catholic  doctrine  concerning  the  Eucliarist,  of  which  two  living  digni- 
taries are  guilty  in  their  pubhcations.  The  bishop  of  Lincoln  says :  "  Papists 
contend  that  the  mere  receiving  of  the  Lord's  Supper  merits  the  remissioi^of  sin,  ex 
opere  operato,  as  it  were  mechanically,  whatever  may  be  the  character  or  disposi- 
tion of  the  communicants."  Elem.  of  Theol.  vol.  ii.  p.  461.  Dr.  Iley  repeats  the 
charge  in  nearly  the  same  words.  Lectures,  vol.  iv.  p.  355.  What  Catholic  wiU 
not  lift  up  his  hands  in  amazement  attlve  grossness  of  this  calumny,  knowing,  as 
he  does,  from  his  catechism  and  all  his  books,  what  purity  of  soiil,  and  how  much 
greater  a  preparation  is  required  for  the  reception  of  our  sacrament  than  Protest- 
ants require  for  receiving  theirs.  ^  See  Concil.  Trid.  Scs*.  xiii.  c.  7.  Cat  Rom. 
i>Quay  Catech.  &c 


Letter  XXXIX.  241 

this  corruption  and  the  importance  of  the  genuine  text,  it  is  in- 
excusable in  him  to  have  passed  it  over  unnoticed. 

The  whole  series  of  ecclesiastical  history  proves  that  the  Ca- 
tholic church,  from  the  time  of  the  apostles  down  to  the  present, 
ever  firmly  believing  that  the  whole  body,  blood,  soul  and  di- 
vinity of  Jesus  Christ  equally  subsist  under  each  of  the  species 
or  appearances  of  bread  and  wine,  regarded  it  as  a  mere  matter 
of  discipline,  which  of  them  was  to  be  received  in  the  holy  sa- 
crament.    It  appears  from  Tertullian,  in  the  second  century,* 
from  St.  Dennis  of  Alexandria!  and  St.  Cyprian, J  in  the  third; 
from  St.  Easily  and  St.  Chrysostom,   in  the  fourth,  &z,c.||  that 
the  blessed  sacrament,  under  the  form  of  bread,  was  preserved 
in  the  oratories  and  houses  of  the  primitive  Christians,  for  pri- 
vate communion,    and  for   the  viaticum   in   danger   of  death. 
There  are  instances  also  of  its  being  carried  on  the  breast,  at 
sea,  in  the  orarium  or  neckcloth. IT     On  the  other  hand,  as  it 
was  the  custom  to  give  the  B.  Sacrament  to  baptized  children, 
it  was  administered  to  those  who  were  quite  infants,  by  a  drop 
out  of  the  chalice.**     On  the  same  principle,  it  being  discover- 
ed,  in  the  fifth  century,  that  certain  Manichaean  heretics,  who 
had  come  to  Rome  from  Africa,  objected  to  the  sacramental  cup, 
from   an  erroneous   and   wicked   opinion.   Pope   Leo   ordered 
them  to  be  excluded  from  the  communion  entirely,! f  and  Pope 
Gelasius  required  all  his  flock  to  receive  under  both  kinds. jj 
It  appears,   that  in  the  twelfth  century,   only  the   officiating 
priest  and  infants  received  under  the  form  of  wine,  which  dis- 
cipline was  confirmed  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  by  the 
Council  of  Constance,'^'^  on  account  of  the  profanations,  and 
other  evils  resulting  from  the  general  reception  of  it  in  that 
form.     Soon  after  this,  the  more  orderly  sect  of  the  Hussites, 
namely,  the  Calixtins,  professing  their  obedience  to  the  church 
in  other  respects,  and  petitioning  the  council  of  Basil  to  be  in- 


•:     *  Ad  Uxor.  1.  ii.  t  Apud  Euseb.  1.  iv.  c.  44.  X  De  Lapsis 

^  Epist.  ad  Cesar.  II  Apud  Soz.  1,  viii.  c.  5. 

%  St.  Ambros.  In  obit.  Frat.— It  appears  also  that  St.  Birinus,  the  apostle  of  the 
"West  Saxons,  brought  the  blessed  sacrament  with  him  into  this  Island  in  an  Orari- 
um. Gul.  Malm.  Vit.  Pontif.  Florent.  Wigorn,  Iligden,  &c. 

**  St.  Cypr.  de  Laps.  tt  Sermo,  iv.  de  Quadrag. 

It  Decret.  Comperimus  Dist.  iii. 

§§  Dr.  Porteus,  Dr.  Croomber,  Kemnitius,  &c.  accuse  this  council  of  decrcping 
that  "  notwithstanding  (for  so  they  express  it)  our  Saviour  ministered  in  both  kinds, 
one  only  shall,  in  future,  be  adminstered  to  the  laity :"  as  if  the  council  opposed 
its  authority  to  that  of  Christ ;  whereas  it  barely  defines  that  some  circumstances  of 
the  institiUion  (namely,  that  it  took  place,  qfter  sxtpper,  that  the  apostles  receive«I 
mthord  being  fasting,  and  thai  both  species  were  co?isecrafed^  are  not  obligatory  on  all 
Christians.     See  Can.  xiii. 

2  H 


S4S  Letter  XXXnC  ' 

dulged  in  the  use  of  the  chalice,  this  was  gfanted  them.*  In 
like  manner  Pope  Pius  IV,  at  the  request  of  the  emperor  Fer- 
dinand, authorized  several  bishops  of  Germany  to  allow  the  use 
of  the  cup  to  those  persons  of  their  respective  dioceses  who  de- 
sired it.f  The  French  kings,  since  the  reign  of  Philip,  have 
had  the  privilege  of  receiving  under  both  kinds,  at  their  coro- 
nation and  at  their  death. J  The  officiating  deacon  and  sub- 
deacon  of  St.  Dennis,  and  all  the  monks  of  the  order  of  Cluni, 
who  serve  the  altar,  enjoy  the  same.§ 

From  the  above  statement  bishop  Porteus  will  learn,  if  not 
that  the  manner  of  receiving  the  sacrament  under  one  or  the 
other  kind,  or  under  both  kinds,  is  a  mere  matter  of  variable 
discipline,  at  least  that  the  doctrine  and  the  practice  of  the  Ca- 
thohc  church  are  consistent  with  each  other.  I  am  now  going 
to  produce  evidence  of  another  kind,  which,  after  all  his,  and 
the  bishop  of  Durham's  anathemas  against  us,  on  account  of 
this  doctrine  and  discipline,  will  demonstrate,  that,  conformably 
with  the  declarations  of  the  three  principal  denominations  of 
Protestants,  the  point  at  issue  is  a  mere  matter  of  discipline,  or 
else  that  they  are  utterly  inconsistent  with  themselves. 

To  begin  with  Luther:  he  reproaches  his  disciple  Carlostad, 
wf\\o  in  his  absence  had  introduced  some  new  religious  changes 
'at  Wittenberg,  with  having  "  placed  Christianity  in  things  of 
no  account,  such  as  communicating  under  both  kinds  "  &£c.|| 
On  another  occasion,  he  writes,  "  if  a  council  did  ordain  or 
permit  both  kinds,  in  spite  of  the  council,  we  would  take  but 
one,  or  take  neither,  and  curse  those  who  should  take  both. "IT 
Secondly,  the  Calvinists  of  France,  in  their  synod  at  Poictiers 
in  1560,  decreed  thus  :  "  the  bread  of  our  Lord's  Supper  ought 
to  be  administered  to  those  who  cannot  drink  ivine,  on  their 
making  a  protestation  that  they  do  not  refrain  from  contempt.** 
Lastl}',  by  separate  acts  of  that  parliament  and  that  king,  who 
established  the  Protestant  religion  in  England,  and  by  name, 
communion  in  both  kinds,  it  is  provided  that  the  latter  should 
only  be  commonly  so  delivered  and  ministered,  and  an  exception 
is  made  in  case  "  necessity  did  otherwise  require."tt     Now  1 

*  Sess.  ii.  t  Mem.  Granv.  t.  xiii.  Odorhainal. 

t  Annal.  Pagi.  §  Nat.  Alex.  t.  i.  p.  430.  *     - 

B  Epist.  ad  Gasp.  Gustol.  IT  Form.  Miss.  t.  ii.  pp.  384,  386. 

♦♦  On  the  Lord's  Supper,  c.  iii.  p.  7. 

■ft  Burnet's  Hist,  of  Reform.  Part  ii.  p.  41.  Heylin's  Hist,  of  Reform,  p.  58.  FcRT 
tlie  proclamation,  see  bishop  Sparrow's  Collection,  p.  17.— N.  B.  The  writer  has 
heard  of  Jintish  made  wine  being  frequently  used  by  Church  ministers  in  their  sjh 
crament,  for  real  wine.  The  missionaries,  who  were  sent  to  Otaheite,  used  tho 
^tadJntit  for  real  bread  on  the  like  occasion.     See  Voyage  of  the  ship  Du£C 


Letter  XJL.  t^l^ 

need  not  observe,  that,  if  the  use  of  the  cup  were,  by  the  ap- 
jpointment  of  Christ,  an  essential  part  of  the  sacrament,  no  ne- 
cessity can  ever  be  pleaded  in  bar  of  that  appointment,  and  men 
might  as  well  pretend  to  celebrate  the  eucharist  without  bread 
as  without  wine,  or  to  confer  the  sacrament  of  baptism  without 
water.  The  dilemma  is  inevitable.  Either  the  ministration  of 
the  sacrament  under  one  or  under  both  kinds  is  a  matter  of 
changeable  disciphne,  or  each  of  the  three  principal  denomina- 
tions of  Protestants  has  contradicted  itself.  I  should  be  glad 
to  know  what  part  of  the  alternative  his  lordship  may  choose. 

I  am,  &tc. 

J.  M. 


LETTER  XL. 

To  JAMES  BROWJV,  Esq. 

OJV  THE  SACRIFICE  OF  THE  :N'EW  UlWl 

Dear  Sir, 

The  bishop  of  London  leads  me  next  to  the  consideration  of 
the  sacrifice  of  the  new  law,  commonly  called  THE  MASS,  on 
which,  however,  he  is  brief,  and  evidently  embarrassed.  As  I 
have  already  touched  upon  this  subject,  in  treating  of  the  means 
of  sanctification  in  the  Catholic  church,  I  shall  be  as  brief  upon 
U  as  I  well  can. 

A  sacrifice  is  an  oflering  up  and  immolation  of  a  living  ani- 
mal, or  other  sensible  thing,  to  God,  in  testimony  that  he  is  the 
master  of  life  and  death,  the  Lord  of  us  and  all  things.  It  is 
evidently  a  more  expressive  act  of  the  creature's  homage  to  his 
Creator,  as  well  as  one  more  impressive  on  the  mind  of  the 
creature  itself  than  mere  prayer  is,  and  therefore  it  was  reveal- 
ed by  God  to  the  patriarchs,  at  the  beginning  of  the  world,  and 
afterwards  more  strictly  enjoined  by  him  to  his  chosen  people, 
in  the  revelation  of  his  written  law  to  Moses,  as  the  most  ac- 
ceptable and  efficacious  worship  that  could  be  oflered  up  to 
his  Divine  Majesty.  The  tradition  of  this  primitive  ordinance, 
and  the  notion  of  its  advantageousness,  have  been  so  universal, 
that  it  has  been  practiced,  in  one  form  or  other,  in  every  age 


244  Letter  XL. 

from  our  first  parents  down  to  the  present,  and  by  every  people 
whether  civilized  or  barbarous,  except  modern  Protestants. 
For  when  the  nations  of  the  earth  changed  the  glory  of  the  in- 
corruptible God  into  the  likeness  of  the  image  of  corruptible  man, 
and  of  birds  and  fourfooted  beasts,  Rom.  i.  23,  they  continued 
tlie  rite  of  sacrifice,  and  transferred  it  to  these  unworthy  objects 
of  their  idolatry.  From  the  whole  of  this  1  infer,  that  it  would 
bave  been  truly  surprismg,  if,  under  the  most  perfect  dispensa- 
tion of  God's  benefits  to  men,  the  new  law,  he  had  left  them 
destitute  of  sacrifice.  But  he  has  not  so  left  them ;  on  the  con^- 
trary,  that  prophecy  of  Malachy  is  evidently  verified  in  the  Ca- 
tholic church,  spread  as  it  is  over  the  surface  of  the  earth  : 
From  the  rising  of  the  sun  even  to  the  going  down  thereof  my 
name  is  great  among  the  Gentiles;  and,  in  every  place,  there  is 
sacrifice  ;  and  there  is  offered  to  my  name  a  clean  oblation.  Malac. 
!►  11.  If  Protestants  say,  we  have  the  sacrifice  of  Christ's 
death ;  I  answer,  so  had  the  servants  of  God  under  the  law  of 
nature  and  the  written  law  :  for  it  is  impossible  that  with  the 
blood  of  oxen  and  goats  sin  should  he  taken  away:  nevertheless, 
they  had  perpetual  sacrifices  of  animals  to  represent  the  death 
of  Christ,  and  to  apply  the  fruits  of  it  to  their  souls ;  in  the 
same  manner.  Catholics  have  Christ  himself  really  present,  and 
mystically  ofiered  on  their  altars  daily,  for  the  same  ends,  but 
in  a  far  more  eflicacious  manner,  and,  of  course,  a  true  propiiia^ 
tory  sacrifice.  That  Christ  is  truly  present  in  the  bfessed  eu- 
charist,  I  have  proved  by  many  arguments ;  that  a  mystical 
immolation  of  him  takes  place  in  the  holy  mass,  by  the  separate 
consecration  of  the  bread  and  of  the  wine,  which  strikingly  re- 
presents the  separation  of  his  blood  from*  his  body,  I  have  like- 
wise shown  :  finally,  I  have  shown  you  that  the  ofliciating 
priest  performs  these  mysteries  by  command  of  Christ,  and  in 
memory  of  what  he  did  at  the  last  supper,  and  what  he  endured 
on  Mount  Calvary:  DO  THIS  IN  MEMORY  OF  ME. 
Nothing  then  is  wanting  in  the  holy  mass,  to  constitute  it  the 
true  and  propitiatory  sacrifice  of  the  new  law,  a  sacrifice  which 
as  much  surpasses,  in  dignity  and  efiicacy,  the  sacrifices  of  the 
old  law,  as  the  chief  priest  and  victim  of  it,  the  incarnate  Deity, 
surpasses,  in  these  respects,  the  sons  of  Aaron,  and  tlie  animals 
which  they  sacrificed.  No  wonder  then,  that,  as  the  lathers  of 
the  church,  from  the  earliest  times,  have  borne  testimony  to  the 
Ideality  of  this  sacrifice,*  so  they  should  speak,  in  such  lofty 


•  St.  Justin,  who  appears  to  have  been,  in  his  youth,  contemporary  with  St.  Joha 
the  Evan^dist,  says,  that  "  Christ  instituted  a  sacrifice  in  bread  and  wine,  which 


Letter  XL,  ^^ 

tenns,  of  its  awfulness  and  efficacy :  no  wonder  that  the  church 
of  God  should  retain  and  revere  it  as  the  most  sacred,  and  tlio 
very  essential  part  of  her  sacred  liturgy :  and  I  will  add  no 
wonder  that  Satan  should  have  persuaded  Martin  Luther  to  at- 
tempt to  abrogate  this  worship,  as  that  which,  most  of  all,  it 
offensive  to  him."'^ 

The  main  arguments  of  the  bishops  of  London  and  Lincoli\ 
end  of  Dr.  Hey,  with  other  Protestant  controvertists,  against 
the  sacrifice  of  the  new  law,  are  drawn  from  St.  Paul's  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews,  where,  comparing  the  sacrifice  of  our  Saviour 
with  the  sacrifices  of  the  Mosaic  Law,  the  apostle  says,  that 
Christ  being  come  a  high  priest  of  the  good  things  to  come,  by  a 
greater  and  more  perfect  tabernacle,  not  made  with  hands,  that  is, 
not  of  this  creation  :  neither  by  the  blood  of  goats,  or  of  calves^ 
but  by  his  own  blood,  entered  once  into  the  holies,  having  obtairh" 
ed  eternal  redemption.  Heb.  ix.  11,  12.  JVor  yet  that  he  should 
offer  himself  often,  as  the  high  priest  entereth  into  the  holies  every 
year.  Ver.  25.  Again,  St.  Paul  says,  Every  priest  standeth  in^ 
deed  daily  ministering  and  often  offering  the  same  sacrifices, 
which  can  never  take  away  sins :  but  this  man  offering  one  so- 
crifice  for  sins,  sitteth  at  the  right  hand  of  God.  Chap.  x.  11, 
12. 

Such  are  the  texts,  at  full  length,  which  modern  Protestants 
arge  so  confidently  against  the  sacrifice  of  the  new  law; 
but  in  which  neither  the  ancient  fathers,  nor  any  other  descrip- 
tion of  Christians,  but  themselves,  can  see  any  argument  against 
it.  In  fact,  if  these  passages  be  read  in  their  context,  it  will 
appear  that  the  apostle  is  barely  proving  to  the  Hebrews  (whose 
lofty  ideas  and  strong  tenaciousness  _of  their  ancient  rites  ap- 
pear from  different  parts  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles)  how  infi- 
nitely superior  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  is,  to  those  of  the  Mosaic 
Law ;  particularly  from  the  circumstance,  which  he  repeats,  in 

Chrisians  ofter  up  in  every  place,"  quoting:  Malachy  i.  19.  Dialog,  cum  Tryphon. 
St.  Ireiaeus,  whose  master,  Polycarp,  was  a  disciple  of  that  Evang:elist,  says,  that 
"  Christ,  in  consecrating  bread  and  wine,  has  instituted  the  sacrifice  of  the  New 
Law,  whhh  the  church  received  from  the  apostles,  according  to  the  prophecy  of 
Malachy,"  T^.  iv.  32.  St.  Cyprian  calls  the  Eucharist  "  A  true  and  full  sacrifice  ;* 
and  says,  thaf  "  as  Melchisedech  offered  bread  and  wine,  so  Christ  offered  th« 
«ame,  namely,  his  body  and  blood."  Epist.  63.  St.  Chrysostom,  St.  Austin,  St 
Ambrose,  &c.  ar^  equally  clear  and  expressive  on  tliis  point.  Tlie  last  mentioned 
calls  this  sacrifice  by  the  name  of  J\Iissa  or  mass,  so  do  St.  Leo,  St.  Gregory,  our 
Ven.  Bede,  &c. 

*  Luther,  in  his  liook  De  Unct.  et  Miss.  Priv.  tom.  vii.  fol.  229,  gives  an  a*" 
count  of  the  motive  whv^h  induced  him  to  suppress  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass  among 
his  followers.  He  says  tiiat  the  Devil  appeared  to  him  at  midnight,  and  in  a  long 
conference  with  him,  the  whole  of  which  he  relates,  convinced  him  that  the  woj- 
ship  of  the  mass  is  idolatry.    See  Letters  to  a  Prebendary.    Let.  y 


246  Letter  XL. 

different  forms,  namely,  that  there  was  a  necessity  of  their  sa- 
crifices being  often  repeated,  which,  after  all,  could  not  of  them- 
selves, and  independently  of  the  one  they  prefigured,  take  away 
sin ;  whereas  the  latter,  namely,  Christ's  death  on  the  cross,  oh- 
literated  at  once  the  sins  of  those  who  availed  themselves  of  it. 
Such  is  the  argument  of  St.  Paul  to  the  Jews,  respecting  their 
sacrifices,  which  in  no  sort  militates  against  the  sacrifice  of  the 
mass  ;  this  being  the  same  sacrifice  with  that  of  the  cross,  as  to 
the  victim  that  is  ofiered,  and  as  to  the  priest  who  oflers  it,  dif- 
fering in  nothing  but  the  manner  of  ofiering  ;*  in  the  one  there 
being  a  real,  and  in  the  other  a  mystical,  eflusion  of  the  victim's 
blood,  f    So  far  from  invalidating  the  Catholic  doctrine  on  this 
point,  the  apostle  confirms  it,  in  this  very  Epistle ;  where  quot- 
ing and  repeating  the  sublime  Psalm  of  the  royal  prophet  con- 
cerning the  Messiah  ;   Thou  art  a  priest  for  ever  ACCORDING 
TO  THE  ORDER  OF  MELCHISEDECH,  Ps,  109,  alias 
110,  he  enlarges  on  the  dignity  of  this  sacerdotal  patriarch,  to 
whom  Aaron  himself,  the  high  priest  of  the  old  law,  paid  tri- 
bute, as  to  his  superior,  through  his  ancestor  Abraham,  Heb.v. 
vii.     Now  in  what  did  this  order  of  Melchisedech  consist.'*     In 
what,  I  ask,  did  his  sacrifice  difi^er  from  those  which  Abraham 
himself  and  the  other  patriarchs,  as  well  as  Aaron  and  his  sons 
ofiered  f    Let  us  consult  the  sacred  text,  as  to  what  it  says  con- 
cerning this  royal  priest,  when  he  came  to  meet  Abraham,  on 
his   return   from  victory :    Melchisedech,   the  king  *of  Salem, 
bringing  forth  BREAD  AND  WINE, /or  Ae  was  the  priest  of  the 
most  High  God;  blessed  him.  Gen.  xiv.  18.  It  was  then  in  offering 
op  a  sacrifice  of  bread  and  wine,'l  instead  of  slaughtered  animals, 
that  Melchisedech's  sacrifice  differed  from  the  generality  of 
those  in  the  Old  Law,  and  that  he  prefigured  the  sacrifice, 
which  Christ  was  to  institute  in  the  New  Law,  from  the  same 
elements.     No  other  sense  but  this  can  be  elicited  from  t?ie 
Scripture  as  to  this  matter,   and  accordingly,  the  holy  fatl^ers 
unanimously  adhere  to  this  meaning.^ 

In  finishing  this  letter,  I  cannot  help,  dear  sir,  making  wo  or 
three  short,  but  important  observations.  The  first  regards  the 
deception  practised  on  the  unlearned  by  the  above-samed  bi- 
shops. Dr.  Hey,  and  most  other  Protestant  controv^rtists,  in 


♦  Concil.  Trid.  Sess.  xxii.  cap.  2,  t  Cat.  ad  Faroe.  ?.  ii.  p.  81. 

X  The  sacrifice  of  Cain,  Gen.  iv.  3.  and  that  ordered  in  Zevit.  ii.  1,  of  flour,  oil, 
and  incense,  prove  that  inanimate  things  were  sometimpd  of  old  offered  in  sacrip* 
fice. 

§  St.  Cypr.  Ep.  63.  St.  Aug.  in  Ps.  xxxiii.  St.  Chry?.  Horn.  35.  St.  Jerom,  Ep» 
126,  &c 


Letter  XL.  '  347 

talking,  on  every  occasion,  of  the  Popish  mass,  and  represent- 
ing the  tenets  of  the  real  presence,  transubstamiation,  and  a 
subsisting  true  propitiatory  sacrifice,  as  peculiar  to  CatJioiu.H ; 
whereas,  if  they  are  persons  of  any  learning,  tliey  must  know 
that  these  are  and  have  always  been  held  by  all  the  Christians 
in  the  world,  except  the  comparatively  few  who  inhabit  the 
northern  parts  of  Europe.     1  speak  of  the  Melchite  or  common 
Greeks  of  Turkey,  the  Armenians,  the  Muscovites,  the  Nesto- 
rians,  the  Eutychians  or  Jacobites,  the  Christians  of  St.  Thomas 
in  India,  the  Cophts  and  Ethiopians  in  Africa ;  all  of  whom 
maintain  each  of  those  articles,  and  almost  every  other  on  w  hich 
Protestants  difler  from  Catholics,  with  as  much  firmness  as  we 
ourselves  do.     Now  as  these  sects  have  been  totally  separated 
from  the  Catholic  church,  some  of  them  eight  hundred  and  some 
fourteen  hundred  years,  it  is  impossible  they  should  have  derived 
any  recent  doctrines  or  practices  from  her;  and,  divided,  as 
they  ever  have  been  among  themselves,  they  cannot  have  com- 
bined to  adopt  them.     On  the  other  hand,  since  the  rise  of  Pro- 
testantism, attempts  have  been  repeatedly  made  to  draw  some 
or  other  of  them  to  the  novel  creed;  but  all  in  vain.     Melanc- 
thon  translated  the  Ausburg  Confession  of  Faith  into  Greek, 
and  sent  it  to  Joseph,  patriarch  of  C.  P.,  hoping  he  would 
adopt  it ;  whereas  the  patriarch  did  not  so  much  as  acknow- 
ledge the  receipt  of  the  present.*     Fourteen  years  later,  Cru- 
sius,  professor  of  Tubigen,  made  a  similar  attempt  on  Jeremy, 
the  successor  of  Joseph,  who  wrote  back,  requesting  him  to  write 
no  more  on  the  subject,  at  the  same  time  making  the  most  ex- 
pHcit  declaration  of  his  belief  in  the  seven  sacraments,  the  sa- 
crifice of  the  mass,  transubstantiation,  Uc.\     In  the  middle  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  fresh  overtures   being   made  to  tjie 
Greeks  by  the  Calvinists  of  Holland,  the  most  convincing  evi- 
dence of  the  orthodox  belief  of  all  the  above-mentioned  commu- 
nions, on  the  articles  in  question,  were  furnished  by  them,  the 
originals  of  which  were  deposited  in  the  French  king's  hbrary 
at  Paris.  J     I  have  to  remark,  in  the  second  place,  on  the  in- " 
consistencies  of  the  church  of  England,  respecting  this  point ; 
she  has  priests,^  but,  no  sacrifice!     She  has  altars,\\  but,  no 
victim!     She  has  an  essential  consecration  of  the  sacramental 
elementSjir  without  any  the  least  effect  upon  them !     Not  to  dive 

*  Sheffmae.  torn.  ii.  p.  7.  t  Ibid.  :  perpetuitede  la  Foi. 

§  See  the  Rubrics  of  the  communion  service. 
H  See  ditto  in  Sparrow's  Collea  p.  20. 

IT  "  If  the  consecrated  bread  or  wine  be  all  spent,  before  all  have  communicated, 
file  priest  is  to  consecrate  more.*'    Ruhr.    N.  B.  Bishop  Warburton  and  bishop 


248  Letter  XL. 

deeper  into  this  chaos,  I  would  gladly  ask  bishop  Porteus,- 
what  hinders  a  deacon,  or  even  a  layman,  from  consecrating 
the  sacramental  bread  and  v/ine  as  validly  as  a  priest  or  a  bi- 
shop can  do,  agreeably  to  his  system  of  consecration?  There 
is  evidently  no  obstacle  at  all,  except  such  as  the  mutable  law 
of  the  land  interposes.  In  the  last  place,  I  think  it  right  to 
quote  some  of  the  absurd  and  irreligious  invectives  of  the  re- 
nowned Dr.  Hey  against  the  holy  mass,  because  they  show  the 
extreme  ignorance  of  our  religion,  which  generally  prevails 
among  the  most  learned  Protestants,  who  write  against  it.  The 
doctor  first  describes  the  mass  as  "  blasphemous,  in  dragging 
down  Christ  from  heaven,"  according  to  his  expression;  2dly, 
as  "  pernicious,  in  giving  men  an  easy  way,"  as  he  pretends, 
"  of  evading  all  their  moral  and  religious  duties ;"  3dly,  as 
"  promoting  infidelity :"  in  conformity  with  which  latter  asser- 
tion, he  maintains  that  "  most  Romanists  of  letters  and  science 
are  infidels."  He  next  proceeds  seriously  to  advise  Catholics 
to  abandon  this  part  of  their  sacred  liturgy,  namely,  the  ador- 
able sacrifice  of  the  New  Law;  and  he  then  concludes  his  theo- 
logical farce  with  the  following  ridiculous  threats  against  this 
sacrifice :  "  If  the  Romanists  will  not  listen  to  our  brotherly  ex- 
hortations ;  leWh^ra  fear  our  threats.  The  rage  oi  paying  for 
masses  will  not  last  for  ever :  as  men  improve,  (by  the  French 
Revolution,)  it  will  continue  to  grow  weaker ;  as  philosophy 
(that  of  Atheism)  rises,  masses  will  sink  in  price  and  iupersti- 
tion  pine  away."*  I  wish  I  had  an  opportunity  of  telling  the 
learned  professor,  that  I  should  have  expected,  from  the  failure 
of  patriarch  Luther,  counselled  and  assisted  as  he  was  by  Satan 
himself,  in  his  attempts  to  abolish  the  holy  mass,  he  would  have 
been  more  cautious  in  dealing  prophetic  threats  against  it !  [In 
fact  he  has  lived  to  see  this  divine  worship  publicly  restored  in 
every  part  of  Christendom,  where  it  was  proscribed,  when  he 
vented  his  menaces  :  for  as  to  the  private  celebration  of  mass^ 
this  was  never  intermitted,  not  even  in  the  depth  of  the  gloomi- 
est dungeons,  and  where  no  pay  could  be  had  by  the  Catholic 
priesthood.  What  other  religious  worship,  I  ask,  could  have 
triumphed  over  such  a  persecution  !  The  same  will  be  the  case 
in  ,the  latter  days ;  when  the  man  of  sin  shall  have  indignation 

Cleaver  earnestly  contend  that  the  Eucharist  is  a  feast  upon  a  sacrifice :  but  as,  i« 
their  dread  of  Popery,  they  admit  no  change,  nor  even  the  reality  of  a  victim, 
their  fea^^t  is  proved  Uj  be  an  imaginary  banquet  on  an  ideal  viand. 

*  Dr.  Hey's  Thcol.  Lectures,  vol.  iv.  p.  385.  The  professor  tells  us  in  a  note, 
that'this  lecture  was  delivered  in  the  year  1792;  the  hey-day  of  that  antichristiaii 
and  antisocial  philosophy,  which  attempted,  through  an  ocean  of  blood,  to  subvert 
every  altar  and  every  throne. 


Letter  XLL  249 

against  the  covenant  of  the  sanctuary, — and  shall  take  away  the 
continual  sacrifice,  Dan.  xi.  30,  34;  for  even  then,  the  mystical 
woman  who  is  clothed  with  the  sun,  and  has  the  moon  under  her 
feet, — shall  fly  into  the  wilderness.  Rev.  xii.  1,  6,  and  perform 
the  divine  mysteries  of  an  incarnate  Deity  in  caverns  and  cata- 
combs, as  she  did  in  early  times,  till  that  happy  day,  when  her 
heavenly  spouse,  casting  aside  those  sacramental  veils,  under 
which  his  love  now  shrouds  him,  shall  shine  forth  in  the  glory  of 
God  the  Father,  the  Judge  of  the  living  and  the  dead.^ 

I  am,  he. 

J.M. 


LETTER  XLL 
To  the  Rev.  ROBERT  CLAYTOJ^,  M.  A. 

OJV  .^BSOLUTIOJ^  FROM  Sm. 

Dear  Sir, 
I  PERCEIVE  that  you  chiefly  follorvv  B.  Porteus,  who  mixes  in 
the  same  chapter  the  heterogeneous  subjects  of  the  mass  and 
the  forgiveness  of  sins,  in  the  selection  of  3^our  objections 
against  the  church,  though  you  adopt  some  others  from  the 
Tracts  of  bishop  Watson,  and  even  from  writers  of  such  little 
repute  as  the  Rev.  C.  De  Coetlogon.  This  preacher,  in  vent- 
ing the  horrid  calumnies,  which  a  great  proportion  of  other 
Protestant  preachers  and  controvertists  of  diflerent  sects,  equal- 
ly with  himself,  instil  into  the  minds  of  their  ignorant  hearers 
and  readers,  expresses  himself  as  follows :  "In  the  church  of 
Rome  you  may  purchase  not  only  pardons  for  sins  already 
committed,  but  for  those  that  shall  be  committed ;  so  that  any 
one  may  promise  himself  impunity,  upon  paying  the  rate  that  is 
set  upon  any  sin  he  hath  a  mind  to  commit.  And  so  truly  is 
Popery  the  mother  of  abominations,  that  if  any  one  hath 
wherewithal  to  pay,  he  may  not  only  be  indulged  in  his  present 
transgressions,  but  may  even  be  permitted  to  transgress  in  fu- 
ture."*    And  arc  these  shameless  calumniators  real  Christians, 


*  Abominations  of  the  church  of  Rome,  p.  13.    The  preacher  goes  on  to  state 

['athol 

2  I 


the  sums  of  money  for  which,  he  says,  Catholics  believe  they  may  commit  the  moj^ 


260  Letter  XLL 

who  believe  in  a  judgment  to  come  !  And  do  they  expect  to 
make  us  Catholics  renounce  our  religion,  by  representing  it  to 
us  as  the  very  reverse  of  what  we  know  it  to  be  I  It  is  true,  bi- 
shop Porteus  does  not  go  the  lengths  of  the  pulpit-declaimer 
above  quoted,  and  of  the  other  controvertists  alluded  to,  in  his 
attack  upon  the  Catholic  doctrine  of  absolution  and  justifica- 
tion :  still  he  is  guilty  of  much  gross  misrepresentation  of  it. 
As  his  language  is  confused,  if  not  contradictory  on  the  sub- 
ject, I  will  briefly  state  what  the  Catholic  church  has  ever  be- 
lieved, and  has  solemnly  defined  in  her  last  general  council 
concerning  it. 

The  council  of  Trent,  then,  teaches,  that  "  All  men  lost  their 
innocence  and  become  defiled  and  children  of  wrath,  in  the  pre- 
varication of  Adam;  that,  not  only  the  Gentiles  were  unable,  by 
the  force  of  nature,  but  that  even  the  Jews  were  unable,  by  the 
Law  of  Moses,  to  rise,  notwithstanding  free-will  was  not  extinct 
in  them,  however  weakened  and  depraved  :"*  that  "  The  hea- 
venly Father  of  mercy  and  God  of  all  consolation  sent  his  Son, 
Jesus  Christ,  to  men,  in  order  to  redeem  both  Jews  and  Gen- 
tiles ;"t  that  "  Though  he  died  for  all,  yet  all  do  not  receive 
the  benefit  of  his  death ;  but  only  those  to  whom  the  merit  of 
his  passion  is  communicated ;"{  that,  for  this  purpose,  "  Since 
the  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  baptism,  or  the  desire  of  it,  is  ne- 
cessary ;"§  that  "  The  beginning  of  justification,  in  adult  per- 
sons (those  who  are  come  to  the  use  of  reason)  is  to  be  derived 
from  God's  preventing  grace,  through  Jesus  Christ,  by  which, 
without  any  merits  of  their  own,  they  are  called ;  so  that  they 
who,  by  their  sins,  were  averse  from  God,  by  his  exciting  and 
assisting  grace,  are  prepared  to  convert  themselves  to  their 
justification,  by  freely  consenting  to  and  co-operating  with  his 


atrocious  crimes;  "  For  incest,  &c.  five  sixpences;  for  debauching  a  virgin,  six 
sixpences ;  for  perjury,  ditto ;  for  him  who  kills  his  father,  mother,  &c.  one  crown 
and  five  groats !"  This  curious  account  is  borrowed  from  the  Taxa  Cmicellarice 
Romance,  a  book  which  has  been  frequently  pubhshed,  though  with  great  variations 
both  as  to  the  crimes  and  the  prices,  by  the  Protestants  of  Germany  and  France, 
and  as  frequently  condemned  by  the  See  of  Rome.  It  is  proper  that  Mr.  Claj-ton 
and  his  friends  should  know,  that  the  Pope's  Court  of  Chancery  has  no  more  to 
do,  nor  pretends  to  have  any  more  to  do,  with  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  than  his  Ma- 
jesty's court  of  chancery  does.  In  case  there  ever  was  the  least  real  gi|pundwork 
of  this  vile  book,  which  I  cannot  find  there  was,  the-  money  paid  into  the  papal 
chancery  could  be  nothing  else  but  ihe  fees  of  office,  on  restoring  certain  culprits  to 
the  civil  piiviteses  which  they  had  forfeited  by  their  crimes.  When  the  proceed- 
ings in  doctors  commons,  in  rnsc  of  incest,  are  suspended  (as  I  have  known  thenx 
iuspended  during  the  whole  life  of  one  of  the  accused  parties)  fees  of  office  are  al- 
ways requirerl :  but  wouhl  it  not  1)0  a  vile  calumny  to  say,  that  leave  to  con^put 
incest  may  be  purchased  in  En.:^lund  for  certain  sums  of  money? 

*  Se6!i.  Ti.  cup.  i.  t  Cup.  ii.  t  Cap.  iii,  ^  Cap.  ir. 


Letter  XLL  251 

grace  :"*  that,  '*  Being  excited  and  assisted  ])y  divine  grace, 
and  receiving  faith  from  hearing,  they  are  freely  moved  towards 
God,   believing  the  things  which  have  been  divinely  revealed 
and  promised — they  are  excited  to  hope  that  God  will  be  mer- 
ciful to  them  for  Christ's  sake,  and  they  begin  to  love  him,  as 
the  fountain  of  all  justice  ;  and  therefore  are  moved  to  a  certain 
hatred  and  detestation  of  sins."     Lastly,  "  They  resolve  on  re- 
ceiving baptism,  to  begin  a  new  life  and  keep  God's  command- 
ments."f     Such   is  the  doctrine  of  the  church  concerning  the 
justification  of  the  adult  in  baptism  ;  with  respect  to  the  par- 
don of  sins  committed  after  baptism,  the  church  teaches,  that 
"  The  penance  of  a  Christian,  after  liis  fall,  is  very  dillerent 
from  that  of  baptism,  and  that  it  consists,  not  only  in  refraining 
from  sins  and  a  detestation  of  them,  namely,  a  contrite  and 
humble  hearty  but  also  in  a  sacramental  confession  of  them,  at 
least  in  desire,  and,  at  a  proper  time,   and  the  priestly  absolu- 
tion;  and  likewise  in  satisfaction,  by  fasting,  alms,  prayers,  and 
other  pious  exercises  of  a  spiritual  life  ;  not  indeed  for  the  eter- 
nal punishment,  which,  together  with  the  crime,  is  remitted  in 
the  sacrament,  or  the  desire  of  the  sacrament,  but /or  the  tem- 
poral punishment,  which  the  Scripture  teaches  is  not  always  and 
wholly  remitted,  as  in  baptism. "J     Such  is  and  always  was  the 
doctrine  of  the  Catholic  church,  which  thus  ascribes  the  whole 
glory  of  man's  justification,  both  in  its  beginning  and  its  pro- 
gress, to  God,  through  Jesus  Christ ;  in  opposition  to  Pelagians 
and  modern  Lutherans,  who  attribute  the  beginning  of  conver- 
sion to  the  human  creature.     On  the  other  hand,  this  doctrine 
leaves  man  in  possession  of  his  free  will,  for  co-operating  in  this 
great  work ;  and  thereby   rejects  the  pernicious  tenet  of  the 
Calvinists,  who  deny  free  will,  and  ascribe  even  our  sins  to  God. 
In  short,  the  Catholic  church  equally  condemns  the  enthusiasm 
of  the  Methodist,  who  fancies  himself  justified,  in  some  unexr 
pected  instant,  without  faith,  hope,  charity,  or  contrition ;  and 
the  presumption  of  the  unconverted  sinner,  who  supposes  that 
exterior  good  works  and  the  reception  of  the  sacrament  will 
avail  him,  without  any  degree  of  the  above-mentioned  divine 
virtues.     Such,  I  say,  is  the  Catholic  doctrine,  in  s])ite  of  De 
Coetlogon   and   bishop  Porteus's  cahnnnies.     This  prelate  is 
chiefly  bent  on  disproving  the  necessity  of  sacramental  confes- 
sion, and  on  depriving  the  sacerdotal  absolution  of  all  ellicacjr 
whatsoever.     Accordingly,    he    maintains    that    when    Christ 
breathed  upon  his  apostles   and  said   to  them:  Receive  ye   th^ 
Holy  Ghost:    WHOSE    SINS  YOU    SHALL    FORGIVE. 

*  Cap.  V.  t  Cap.  \l  t  John  xx.  2'2,  23. 


Sr52  Letter  XLt 

THEY  ARE  FORGIVEN  TO  THEM;  AND  WHOSE 
SINS  YOU  SHALL  RETAIN,  THEY  ARE  RETAIN- 
ED, John  XX.  22,  23,  he  did  not  give  them  any  real  power  to 
remit  sins,  but  only  "  a  power  of  declaring  who  were  truly 
penitent,  and  of  inflicting  miraculous  punishments  on  sinners ; 
as  likewise  of  preaching  of  the  word  of  God,"  Sic*  And  is 
this,  I  appeal  to  you,  Rev.  sir,  following  the  plain  and  natural 
sense  of  the  written  word  ?  But,  instead  of  arguing  the  case 
myself,  I  will  produce  an  authority  against  the  bishop's  vague 
and  arbitrary  gloss  on  this  decisive  passage,  which  I  think  he 
cannot  object  to  or  withstand ;  it  is  no  other  than  that  of  the 
renowned  Protestant  champion,  Chillingworth.  Treating  of 
this  text  he  says,  "Can  any  man  be  so  unreasonable  as  to  ima- 
gine, that,  when  our  Saviour,  in  so  solemn  a  manner,  having 
first  breathed  upon  his  disciples,  thereby  conveying  and  insinu- 
ating the  Holy  Ghost  into  their  hearts,  renewed  unto  them,  or 
rather  confirmed  that  glorious  commission,  he.  whereby  he 
delegated  to  them  an  authority  of  binding  and  loosing  sins  upon 
earth,  &;c.;  can  any  one  think,  I  say,  so  unworthily  of  our  Sa- 
viour as  to  esteem  these  words  of  his  for  no  better  than  compli- 
ment ?  Therefore,  in  obedience  to  his  gracious  will,  and  as  I  am 
warranted  and  enjoined  by  my  holy  mother,  the  church  of  Eng- 
land, I  beseech  you,  that,  by  your  practice  and  use,  you  will 
not  suffer  that  commission,  which  Christ  hath  giv^n  to  his 
ministers,  to  be  a  vain  form  of  words,  without  any  sense  under 
them.  When  you  find  yourselves  charged  and  oppressed,  &ic. 
have  recourse  to  your  spiritual  physician,  and  freely  disclose  the 
nature  and  malignancy  of  your  disease,  &ic.  And  come  not  to 
him,  only  with  such  a  mind  as  you  would  go  to  a  learned  man, 
as  one  that  can  speak  comfortable  things  to  you  ;  but  as  to  one 
that  hath  authority,  delegated  to  him  from  God  himself^  to  ab" 
solve  and  acquit  you  of  your  sins.^^j 

Having  quoted  this  great  Protestant  authority  against  the 
prelate's  cavils  concerning  sacerdotal  absolution,  I  shall  pro- 
duce one  or  two  more  of  the  same  sort,  and  then  return  to  the 
more  direct  proofs  of  the  doctrine  under  consideration.  The 
Lutherans,  then,  who  are  the  elder  branch  of  the  Reformation, 
in  their  Confession  of  Faith  and  apology  for  that  Coilfession, 
expressly  teach  that  absolution  is  no  less  a  sacrament  than  bap- 
tism and  the  Lord's  Supper,  that  particular  absolution  is  to  be 
retained  in  confession,  that  to  reject  it  is  the  error  of  the  Nov;ei- 
tian  heretics;  and  that,  by  the  power  of  the  keys,  Mat,  xvi.  19, 

♦  p.  45.  t  SemL  rii.  Folig.  pp.  408, 409. 


Letter  XLF.  253 

sins  are  remitted,  not  only  in  the  sight  of  the  church,  but  also  in 
the  sight  of  God.^     Luther  himself,  in  his  Catechism,  required 
that  the  penitent,  in  confession,  should  expressly  declare  that  he 
believes  ^^  the  forgiveness  of  the  priest  to  be  the  forgiveness  of 
Qody\     What  can  bishop  Porteus  and  other  modern  Protest* 
ants  say  to  all  this,  except  that  Luther  and  his  disciples  were 
infected  with  Popery?     Let  us  then  proceed  to  inquire  into  the 
doctrine  of  the  church  itself,  of  which  he  is  one  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished heads.     In  The  Order  of  the  Communion,  composed 
by  Cranmer,  and  published  by  Edward  VI,  the  parson,  vicar  or 
curate,  is  to  proclaim  this  among  other  things  :  "  If  there  be 
any  of  you  whose  conscience  is  troubled  and  grieved  at  any 
thing,  lacking  comfort  or  counsel,  let  him  come  to  me,  or  to 
some  other  discreet  and  learned  priest,  and  confess  and  open  his 
sin  and  grief  secretly,  &ic.  and  that  of  us,  as  a  minister  of  God 
and  of  the  church,  he  may  receive  comfort  and  ahsolution.'^^\ 
Conformably  with  this  admonition,  it  is  ordained  in  the  Com- 
mon Prayer  Booh  that  when  the  minister  visits  any  sick  person, 
the  latter  "  should  be  moved  to  make  a  special  confession  of  his 
sins,  if  he  feels  his  conscience  troubled  with  any  weighty  matter; 
after  which  confession,  the  priest  shall  absolve  him,  if  he  humbly 
and  heartily  desire  it,  after  this  sort :   Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
who  hath  left  power  to  his  church  to  absolve  all  sinners,  who  trip* 
ly  repent  and  believe  in  him,  of  his  great  mercy,  forgive  thee  thine 
offences :  and,  by  his  authority  committed  to  me,  I  ABSOLVE 
THEE  FROM  ALL  THY  SINS,  in  the  name  of  the  Father, 
and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  ^mew."§     I  may  add, 
that,  soon  after  James  I.  became,  at  the  same  time,  the  member 
and  the  head  of  the  English  church,  he  desired  his  prelates  to 
inform  him,  in  the  conference  at  Hampton  Court,  what  authori- 
ty this  church   claimed  in  the  article  of  absolution  from  sin, 
when  archbishop  Whitgift  began  to  entertain  him  with  an  ac- 
count of  the  general  confession  and  absolution,  in  the  commn- 
nion  service;  with  which  the  king  not  being  satisfied,  Bancroft, 
at  that  time  bishop  of  London,  fell  on  his  knees,  and  said,  *'  It 
becomes  us  to  deal  plainly  with  your  majesty :  there  is  also  in 
the  book  a  more  particular  and  personal  absolution  in  the  visit- 
ation of  the  sick.  Not  only  the  confession  of  Augusta,  (Au^burg) 

*  Confess.  August.  Art.  xi.  xii.  xiii.  Apol. 

t  In  Catech.  Parv.  See  also  Luther's  Table  Talk,  c.  xviii.  on  Auricular  Coiy 
fiession. 

t  Bishop  Sparrow*s  Collect,  p.  20. 

§  Order  for  the  Visitation  of  the  Sick.  N.  B.  To  encourage  the  secret  confes- 
gion  of  sins  the  church  of  England  has  made  a  Canon,  requiring  her  ministers  not 
to  reveal  the  same.    SeeCanones  Eccles.  A.  D.  1692,n.  113. 


264  Letter  XLl 

Bohemia  and  Saxony,  retain  and  allow  it,  but  also  Mr.  Calvin 
doth  approve  both  such  a  general  and  such  a  private  confession 
and  absolution."  To  this  the  king  answered,  I  exceedingly 
well  approve  it,  being  an  apostolical  and  Godly  ordinance,  given 
in  the  name  of  Christ  to  one  that  desireth  it  upon  the  clearing  of 
his  conscience."^ 

I  have  signified  that  there  are  other  passages  of  Scripture, 
besides  that  quoted  above  from  John  xx.  in  proof  of  the  au- 
thority exercised  by  the  Catholic  church  in  the  forgiveness  of 
sin;  such  as  St.  Mat.  xvi.  19,  where  Christ  gives  the  keys  oj 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  to  Petei*;  and  chap,  xviii.  18,  where  he 
declares  to  all  his  apostles  :   T^erily  I  say  unto  you  ;  whatsoever 
ye  shall  hind  on  earth,  shall  be  bound  in  heaven,  and  ivhatsoever 
ye  shall  loose  on  earth,  shall  be  loosed  in  heaven.     But  here  also 
Bp.  Porteus  and  modern  Protestants  distort  the  plain  meaning 
of  Scripture,  and  say,  that  no  other  power  is  expressed  by  these 
words,  than  those  of  inflicting  miraculous  punishments,  and  of 
preaching  the  word  of  God !     Admitting,  however,  it  were  pos- 
sible to  affix  so  foreign  a  meaning  to  these  texts,  I  would  gladly 
ask  the  bishop,  why,   after  ordaining  the  priests  of  his  church 
by  this  very  form  of  words,  he  afterwards,  by  a  separate  form, 
commissions  them  to  preach  the  word,  and  to  minister  ?f  "  No 
one,"  exclaims  the  bishop,  "  but  God,  can  forgive  sins."  True; 
but  as  he  has  annexed  the  forgiveness  of  sins  committed  before 
baptism,  to  the  reception  of  this  sacrament  with  the*requisite 
dispositions  :  Do  penance,   said  St.  Peter  to  the  Jews,  and  be 
baptized  every  one  of  you,  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  for  the 
remission  of  your  sins,  Acts  ii.  38 ;  so  he  is  pleased  to  forgive 
sins  committed  after  baptism,  by  means  of  contrition,  confes- 
sion, satisfaction,  and  the  priest's  absolution. 

Against  the  obligation  of  confessing  sins,  which  is  so  evident- 
ly sanctioned  in  Scripture :  Many  that  believed,  came  and  con- 
fessed, and  declared  their  deeds.  Acts  xix.  18;  and  so  expressly 
commanded  therein,  confess  your  sins  one  to  another,  James  v 
16,  the  bishop  contends  that  "  It  is  not  knowing  a  person's  sins 
that  can  qualify  the  priest  to  give  him  absolution,  but  knowing 
he  hath  repented  of  them."J  In  refutation  of  this  objection,  I 
do  not  ask,  why,  then,  does  the  English  church  move  \j^e  dy~ 


»  Fuller's  Ch.  Hist.  B.  x.  p.  9.  See  the  Defence  of  Bancroft's  Sucessor  in  the 
See  of  Canterbury,  Dr.  Laud,  who  endeavoured  to  enforce  auricular  Confession, in 
Heylin's  life  of  Laud,  P.  ii.  p.  41').  It  appears  from  tliis  writer,  that  Laud  waa 
Confessor  to  the  duke  of  Buckingham,  and  from  Burnet,  that  bishop  Morley  was 
Confessor  to  the  Dutchess  of  York  when  a  Protestant.     Hist,  of  hi«  own  Times. 

t  See  the  Form  of  Ordering  Priesta.  t  P.  46 


Letter  XLL  9^ 

tug  man  to  confess  his  sins  ?  but  I  say,  that  the  priest,  being 
vested  by  Christ  with  a  judicial  power  to  bind  or  to  loose^  to 
forgive  or  to  retain  sins,  cannot  exercise  that  power,  without 
taking  cognizance  of  the  cause  on  which  he  is  to  pronounce, 
and  without  judging  in  particular  of  the  dispositions  of  the  sin- 
ner, especially  as  to  his  sorrow  for  his  sins,  and  resolution  to 
refrain  from  them  in  future  :  now  this  knowledge  can  only  be 
gained  from  the  penitent's  own  confession.  From  this  may  be 
gathered,  whether  his  offences  are  those  o{  frailty  or  of  malice j 
whether  they  are  accidental  or  habitual;  in  which  latter  case 
they  are  ordinarily  to  be  retained,  till  his  amendment  gives 
proof  of  his  real  repentance.  Confession  is  also  necessary,  to 
enable  the  minister  of  the  sacrament  to  decide  whether  a  public 
reparation  for  the  crimes  committed  be  or  be  not  requisite ; 
and  whether  there  is  or  is  not  restitution  to  be  made  to  the 
neighbour  who  has  been  injured  in  person,  property,  or  reputa- 
tion. Accordingly,  it  is  well  known  that  such  restitutions  are 
frequently  made  by  those  who  make  use  of  sacramental  confes- 
sion, and  very  seldom  by  those  who  do  not  use  it.  I  say  no- 
thing of  the  incalculable  advantage  it  is  to  the  sinner  in  the 
business  of  his  conversion,  to  have  a  confidential  and  experi- 
enced pastor,  to  withdraw  the  veils  behind  which  self-love  is  apt 
to  conceal  his  favourite  passions  and  worst  crimes,  and  to  ex- 
pose to  him  the  enormity  of  his  guilt,  of  which  before  he  had 
perhaps  but  an  imperfect  notion ;  and  to  prescribe  to  him  the 
proper  remedies  for  his  entire  spiritual  cure.  After''  all,  it 
is  for  the  holy  Catholic  church,  with  whom  the  Word  of  God 
and  the  sacraments  were  deposited  by  her  divine  spouse,  Jesus 
Christ,  to  explain  the  sense  of  the  former,  and  the  constituents 
of  the  latter.  In  short,  this  church  has  miiformly  taught,  that 
confession  and  the  priest's  absolution,  where  they  can  be  had, 
are  required  of  the  penitent  sinner,  as  well  as  contrition  and  a 
firm  purpose  of  amendment.  But,  to  believe  the  bishop,  our 
church  does  not  require  contrition  at  all,  though  she  has  de- 
clared it  to  be  one  of  the  necessary  parts  of  sacramental  pe- 
nance, nor  "  any  dislike  to  sin  or  love  to  God,"*  for  tlie  justifi- 
cation of  the  sinner.  I  will  make  no  farther  answer  to  this 
shameful  calumny,  than  by  referring  you  and  your  friends  to 
my  above  citations  from  the  council  of  Trent.  In  these,  you 
have  seen  that  she  requires  "  a  hatred  and  detestation  of  sin  ;'* 
ia  short;  "  a  contrite  and  humble  heart j  which  God  never  (fe- 

♦  p.  47. 


266  Letter  XLL 

spises ;"  and  moreover,  "  an  incipient  love  of  God,  as  the  fouii>- 
tain  of  all  justice." 

Finally,  his  lordship  has  the  confidence  to  maintain,  that 
^  The  primitive  church  did  not  hold  confession  and  absolution 
of  this  kind  to  be  necessary,"  and  that  "  Private  confession 
was  never  thought  of  as  a  command  of  God,  for  nine  hundred 
years  after  Christ,  nor  determined  to  be  such  till  after  1200."* 
The  few  following  quotations  from  ancient  fathers  and  councils, 
will  convince  our  Salopian  friends  what  sort  of  trust  they  are  to 
place  in  this  prelate's  assertions  on  theological  subjects.     Ter- 
tuUian,  who  lived  in  the  age  next  to  that  of  the  apostles,  and  is 
'  tJie  earliest  Latin  writer,  whose  works  we  possess,  writes  thus: 
"  If  you  withdraw  from  confession,  think  of  hell-fire,  which 
confession  extinguishes."!     Origen,  who  wrote  soon  after  him, 
inculcates  the  necessity  of  confessing  our  most  private  sins,  even 
those  of  thoughtjj  and  advises  the  sinner  "  to  look  carefully 
about  him  in  choosing  the  person  to  whom  he  is  to  confess  his 
sins."§     St.  Basil,  in  the  fourth  century,  wrote  thus :   "  It  is 
necessary  to  disclose  our  sins  to  those  to  whom  the  dispensa- 
tion of  the  divine  mysteries  is  committed." ||     St.  Paulinus,  the 
disciple  of  St.  Ambrose,  relates,  that  this  holy  doctor  used  to 
^  weep  over  tke  penitents  whose  confessions  he  hep.rd,  but  never 
disclosed  their  sins  to  any  but  to  God  alone. "IT     The  great  St. 
Austin  writes,  "  Our  merciful  God  wills  us  to  confess  in  this 
world,  that  we  may  not  be  confounded  in  the  othet-;**  and 
elsewhere  he  says,  '*  Let  no  one  say  to  himself,  I  do  penance  to 
God  in  private.     Is  it  then  in  vain  that  Christ  has  said.  What' 
soever  you  loose  on  earth,  shall  be  loosed  in  heaven  ?     Is  it  in 
vain  that  the  keys  have  been  given  to  the  church  r"ff    I  could 
produce  a  long  list  of  other  passages  to  the  same  effect,  from 
fathers  and  doctors,  and  also  from  councils  of  the  church,  an- 
terior to  the  periods  he  has  assigned  to  the  commencement  and 
confirmation  of  the  doctrine  in  question:  but  I  will  have  re- 
course to  a  shorter,  and  perhaps  more  convincing  proof,  that 
this  doctrine  could  not  have  been  introduced  into  the  church 
at  any  period  whatsoever  subsequent  to  that  of  Christ  and  his 
apostles.     My  argument  is  this  :  it  is  impossible  it  should  have 
been  at  any  time  introduced,  if  it  was  not  from  the  first  neces- 
sary.    The  pride  of  die  human  heart  would  at  all  time^  have 


*  Ibid.                      t  Lib.  de  Poenit. 

t  Horn.  3  in  Levit 

f)  Horn.  2  in  Ps.  xxxvii.                   ||  Rule  229. 

m  In  Vit.  Ambros. 

♦*  Horn.  20.                                   tt  Horn.  49. 

LtiUr  XLL  257 

-J 

revolted  at  the  imposition  of  such  a  humiliation,  as  that  of  con- 
fessing all  its  most  secret  sins,  if  Christians  had  not  previously 
believed  that  this  rite  is  of  divine  iii6titution,  and  even  necessary 
for  the  pardon  of  them.  Supposing,  however,  that  the  clergy, 
at  some  period,  had  fascinated  tlie  laity,  kings  and  emperors, 
as  well  as  peasants,  to  submit  to  this  yoke;  it  will  still  lemaiii 
to  be  accounted  for,  how  they  look  it  up  themselves;  for 
monks,  priests  and  bishops,  and  the  Pope  himself,  must  equally 
confess  their  sins  with  the  meanest  of  the  people.  And  if  even 
this  could  be  explained,  it  would  still  be  necessary  to  show  how 
the  numerous  organized  churches  of  the  Nestorians  and  Euty- 
cJiians,  spread  over  Asia  and  Africa,  from  Bagdad  to  Axum,  all 
of  whom  broke  from  the  communion  of  the  Catholic  church  in 
the  fifth  century,  took  up  the  notion  of  penance  being  a  sacra- 
ment, and  that  confession  and  absolution  are  essential  parts  of 
it,  as  they  all  believe  at  the  present  day.  With  respect  to  the 
main  body  of  the  Greek  Christians,  they  separated  from  the 
Latins  much  about  the  period  which  our  prelate  has  set  down 
for  the  rise  of  this  doctrine;  but  though  they  reproached  tl>e 
Latin  Christians  with  shaving  their  beards,  singing  Allelujah 
at  wrong  seasons,  and  other  such  like  minutiae,  they  never  ac- 
cused them  of  any  error  respecting  private  confession  or  sacer- 
dotal absolution.  To  support  the  bishop's  assertions  on  this 
and  many  other  points,  it  would  be  necessary  to  suppose,  as  1 
have  said  before,  that  a  hundred  millions  of  Greek  and  Latin 
Christians  lost  their  senses  on  some  one  and  the  same  day  or 
night ! 

In  finishing  this  letter,  I  take  leave,  Rev.  sir, to  advert  to  the 
case  of  some  of  your  respectable  society,  who,  to  my  know- 
ledge, are  convinced  of  the  truth  of  the  Catholic  religion,  but 
are  deterred  from  embracing  it,  by  the  dread  of  that  sacrament 
of  which  I  have  been  treating.  Their  pitiable  case  is  by  no 
means  singular :  we  continually  find  persons,  who  are  not  only 
desirous  of  reconciHng  themselves  to  their  true  mother,  the  Ca- 
tholic church,  but  also  of  laying  the  sins  of  their  youth  and  their 
ignorances,  Ps.  xxiv.  alias  xxv.  7,  at  the  feet  of  some  one  or 
other  of  her  faithful  ministers,  convinced  that  thereby  they 
would  procure  ease  to  their  afflicted  souls,  yet  have  not  the 
courage  to  do  this.  Let  the  persons  alluded  to  humbly  and 
fervently  pray  to  the  Giver  of  all  good  gifts  for  his  strengther>- 
ing  grace,  and  let  them  be  persuaded  of  the  truth  of  what  an 
unexceptionable  witness  says,  who  kad  experienced,  while  he 
Was  a  Catholic,  the  interior  joy  he  describes,  where,  persuading 
the  penitent  to  go  to  his  confessor    "  not  as  to  one  that  can 

2K 


2&S  Letter  XLU, 

speak  comfortable  and  quieting  words  to  him,  but  as  to  one 
that  hath  authority  delegated  to  him  from  God  himself,  to  ab- 
solve and  acquit  him  of  his  sins,"  he  goes  on,  "  If  you  shall  do 
this,  assure  ^our  souls,  that  the  understanding  of  man  is  not 
able  to  conceive  that  transport,  and  excess  of  joy  and  comfort, 
which  shall  accrue  to  that  man's  heart,  who  is  persuaded  he 
hath  been  made  partaker  of  this  blessing."*  On  the  other 
hand,  if  such  persons  are  convinced,  as  I  am  satisfied  they  are, 
tliat  Christ's  words  to  his  apostles,  Receive  the  Holy  Ghost: 
whose  sins  you  shall  remit,  they  are  remitted,  mean  what  they 
express,  they  must  know,  that  confession  is  necessary  to  buy  off 
overwhelming  confusion,  as  the  fathers  I  have  quoted  signify, 
at  the  great  day  of  manifestation,  and  with  this  never-ending 
punishment. 

I  am,  &1C. 

J.M. 


LETTER  XLII. 

To  the  Rev.  ROBERT  CLAYTON,  M.  A. 

ox  ij^dulge:n'ces. 

Rev  Sir, 
I  TRUST  you  will  pardon  me,  if  I  do  not  send  a  special  an- 
swer to  the  objections  you  have  stated  against  my  last  letter  to 
you,  because  you  will  find  the  substance  of  them  answered  in 
this  and  my  next  letter  concerning  indulgences  and  purgatory. 
Bishop  Porteus  reverses  the  proper  order  of  these  subjects,  by 
treating  first  of  the  latter  :  indeed  his  ideas  are  much  confused, 
and  his  knowledge  very  imperfect  concerning  them  both.  This 
prelate  describes  an  indulgence  to  be,  in  the  belief  of  Catholics, 
(without,  however,  giving  any  authority  whatever  fomhis  de- 
scription) **  a  transfer  of  the  overplus  of  the  saints'  goodness, 
joined  with  the  merits  of  Christ,  he,  by  the  Pope,  as  head  of 
the  church,  towards  the  remission  of  their  sins,  who  fulfil,  in 
their  lifetime,  certain  conditions  appointed  by  him,  or  whose 

♦  Chfllingworth,  Sermon  vii.  p.  409. 


Lttter  XLIL  25d 

friends  will  fulfil  them,  after  their  death."*  He  fpeaks  of  it  as 
"  a  method  of  making  poor  wretches  believe  that  wickedness 
here  may  become  consistent  witli  happiness  hoieafter-»-that  re- 
pentance is  explained  away  or  overlooked  among  other  thinus 
joined  with  it,  as  saying  so  many  prayers  and  paying  so  mucii 
money. "f  Some  of  the  bishop's  friends  have  published  much 
the  same  description  of  indulgences,  but  in  more  perspicuous 
language.  One  of  them,  in  liis  attempt  to  show  that  each 
Pope,  in  succession,  has  been  the  man  of  sin,  or  Antichrist, 
says,  *'  Besides  their  own  personal  vices,  by  their  indulgences, 
pardons,  and  dispensations,  which  they  claim  a  power  from 
Christ  of  granting,  and  which  they  have  sold  in  so  infamous 
a  manner,  they  have  encouraged  all  manner  of  vile  and 
wicked  practices.  They  have  contrived  numberless  me- 
thods of  making  a  holy  life  useless,  and  to  assure  the  most 
abandoned  of  salvation,  provided  they  will  sufficiently  pav 
the  priests  for  absolution. "{  With  the  same  disregard  of 
charity  and  truth,  another  eminent  divine  speaks  of  the  matter 
thus,  "  the  Papists  have  taken  a  notable  course  to  secure  men 
from  the  fear  of  hell,  that  of  penances  and  indulgences.  To 
those,  who  will  pay  the  price,  absolutions  are  to  be  had  for  the 
most  abominable  and  not  to  be  named  villanies,  and  license 
also  for  not  a  few  wickednesses. "§  In  treating  of  a  subject, 
the  most  intricate  of  itself  among  the  common  topics  of  contro- 
versy, and  which  has  been  so  much  confused  and  perplexed  by 
the  misrepresentations  of  our  opponents,  it  will  be  necessary, 
for  giving  you.  Rev.  sir,  and  my  other  Salopian  friends,  a  clear 
and  just  idea  of  the  matter,  that  I  should  advance,  step  by  step, 
in  my  explanation  of  it.  In  this  manner  I  propose  showing 
you,  first,  what  an  indulgence  is  not,  and,  next,  what  it  really 
is. 

I.  An  indulgence,  then,  never  was  conceived  by  any  Catholic 
to  be  a  leave  to  commit  a  sin  of  any  kind,  as  De  Coetlogon, 
bishop  Fowler,  and  others  charge  them  with  believing.  The 
first  principles  of  natural  religion  must  convince  every  rational 
being  that  God  himself  cannot  give  leave  to  commit  sin.  The 
idea  of  such  a  license  takes  away  that  of  his  sanctity,  and,  ol 
course,  that  of  his  very  being.  11.  No  Catholic  ever  believed 
it  to  be  a  pardon  for  future  sins,  as  Mrs.  Hannah  More,  and  a 
great  part  of  other  Protestant  writers  represent  the  matter. 

♦  P.  53. 

t  P.  54,  Benson  on  the  Man  of  Sin,  republished  by  bishop  Watson,  TractSi  voL 
r  p.  273. 

t  Bishop  Fowler's  Design  of  Christianity,  Tracts,  vol.  n.  p.  382. 

^  Benson  on  the  Man  of  Sin,  Collect.  m 


260  Letter  XLU. 

This  lady  describes  the  Catholics  as  "  procuring  indemnity  for 
future  gratifications  by  temporary  abstractions  and  indulgences, 
purchased  at  the  court  of  Rome."*  Some  of  her  fraternity, 
indeed,  have  blasphemously  written,  "  Believers  ought  not  to 
mourn  for  sin,  because  it  was  pardoned  before  it  was  commit- 
ted ;"f ,  but  every  Catholic  knows  that  Christ  himself  could  not 
pardon  sin  before  it  was  committed,  because  this  would  imply 
thai  he  forgave  the  sinner  without  repentance.  III.  An  indul- 
gence, according  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Catholic  church,  is  not, 
and  does  not  include  the  pardon  of  any  sin  at  all,  little  or 
great,  past,  present,  or  to  come,  or  the  eternal  punishment  due. 
to  it,  as  all  Protestants  suppose.  Hence,  if  the  pardon  of  sin  is 
mentioned  in  any  indulgence,  this  means  nothing  more  than 
the  remission  of  the  temporary  punishments  annexed  to  such  sin. 
IV.  We  do  not  believe  an  indulgence  to  imply  any  exemption 
from  repentance,  as  B.  Porteus  slanders  us;  for  this  is  always 
enjoined  or  implied  in  the  grant  of  it,  and  is  indispensably  ne- 
cessary for  the  effect  of  every  grace  ;J  nor  from  the  works  of 
penance,  or  other  good  works  ;  because  our  church  teaches  that 
the  "  life  of  a  Christian  ought  to  be  a  perpetual  penance,§  and 
that  to  enter  into  life,  we  must  keep  God''s  commandments, \\  and 
must  abound  in  every  good  worA:."ir  Whether  an  obligation  of 
all  this  cart  be  reconciled  with  the  articles  of  being  "  justified 
by  faith  only,"**  and  that  "  works  done  before  grace  partake 
of  the  nature  of  sin,"f  f  I  do  not  here  inquire.  V.  It*is  incon- 
sistent with  our  doctrine  of  inJierent  justificatlon,\\  to  believe, 
as  the  same  prelate  charges  us,  that  the  effect  of  an  indulgence 
is  to  transfer  "  the  overplus  of  the  goodness,"  or  justification 
of  the  saints,  by  the  ministry  of  the  Pope,  to  us  Catholics  on 
earth.  Such  an  absurdity  may  be  more  easily  reconciled  with 
the  system  of  Luther  and  other  Protestants  concerning  imputed 
justification  ;  which,  being  like  a  "  clean,  neat  cloak,  thrown 
over  a  filthy  leper,"§§  may  be  conceived  transferable  from  one 
person  to  another.     Lastly,  whereas  the  council  of  Trent  calls 

♦  Strictures  on  Female  Education,  vol.  ii.  p.  239. 

t  Eaton's  IIonLycomb  of  Salvation.     See  al!^a  Sir  Richard  Hill's  Letters. 

X  Concil.  Trid.  Sesa.  vi.  c.  4,  c.  13,  &c. 

^  Sess.  xiv.  De  Extr.  Unc.  I!  Sess.  vi.  can.  19.  ^ 

IT  Ibid.  cap.  IG.— N.  B.  'I'licreare  eiglit  Tndulgrences  jrranted  to  Catholics  at  the 
chief  festivals,  &c.  in  every  year ;  the  conditions  of  which  are,  confession  icith  sin- 
cere repentance,  tlie  II.  Communion,  alms  to  the  poor,  (without  distinction  of  their 
religion)  prayers  for  the  church  and  strayed  souls,  the  peace  of  Christendom,  and 
l.ie  blessin?  of  God  on  this  nation  ;  finally,  a  disposition  to  hear  the  word  of  God, 
and  to  assist  the  sick.     See  Laity's  Directory,  Keating:  and  Brown. 

**  Art.  XL  of  39  Art.  tt  Art.  XIII. 

XX  Trid.  Sess.  vi.  can.  xi.  ^^  Becanus  dc  Justi£ 


Letter  XLII.  201 

indulgences  heavenly  treasures*  we  hold  that  it  would  be  a 
sacrilegious  crime  in  any  person  whomsoever  lo  be  concerned 
in  buying  or  selling  them.  I  am  far,  however,  Rev.  sir,  from 
denying  that  indulgences  have  ever  been  soldf — alas  !  wiiat  is 
so  sacred  that  the  avarice  of  men  has  not  put  up  to  sale  !  Christ 
himself  was  sold,  and  that  by  an  apostle,  for  thirty  pieces  of 
silver.  I  do  not  retort  upon  you  the  advertisements  1  frequent- 
ly see  in  the  newspapers  about  buying  and  selling  benefices, 
with  the  cure  of  souls  annexed  to  them,  in  your  church ;  but 
this  I  contend  for,  that  the  Catholic  church,  so  far  from  sanc- 
tioning this  detestable  simony,  has  used  her  utmost  pains,  par- 
ticularly in  the  general  councils  of  Lateran,  Lyons,  Vienne, 
and  Trent,  to  prevent  it. 

To  explain,  now,  in  a  clear  and  regular  manner,  what  an  in- 
dulgence is;  I  suppose,  first,  that  no  one  will  deny  that  a  sove- 
reign prince,  in  showing  mercy  to  a  capital  convict,  may  either 
grant  him  a  remission  of  all  punishment,  or  may  leave  him  sub- 
ject to  some  lighter  punishment :  of  course  he  will  allow  that 
the  Almighty  may  act  in  either  of  these  ways  with  respect  to 
sinners.     II.  I  equally  suppose  that  no  person,  who  is  versed  in 
the  Bible,  will  deny  that  many  instances  occur  there  of  God's 
remitting  the  essential  guilt  of  sin  and  the  eternal  punishment 
due  to  it,  and  yet  leaving  a  temporary  punishment  to  be  en- 
dured by  the  penitent  sinner.     Thus,  for  example,  the  sentence 
of  spiritual  death  and  everlasting  torments  was  remitted  to  our 
first  father,  upon  his  repentance,  but  not  that  of  corporal  death. 
Thus,  also  when  God  reversed  his  severe  sentence  against  the 
idolatrous  Israelites,  he  added,  JVevertkeless,  in  the  day  when  I 
visit,  I  will  visit  their  sin  upon  them.  Exod.  xxxii.  34.     Thus, 
again,  when  the  inspired  Nathan  said  to  the  model  of  penitents, 
David,  The  Lord  hath  put  aivay  thy  sin,  he  added,  nevertheless, 
the  child  that  is  born  unto  thee  shall  die.  2  Kings,  alias  Sam.  xii. 
14.     Finally,  when  David's  heart  smote  him,  after  he  had  num- 
bered the  people,  the  Lord,  in  pardoning  him,  offered  him  by 
his  prophet.  Gad,  the  choice  of  three  temporal  punishments, 
war,   famine,   and  pestilence.    Ibid.  xxiv.     III.  The  Catholic 
church  teaches  that  the  same  is  still  the  common  course  of 
God's  mercy  and  wisdom,  in  the  forgiveness  of  sins  committed 
after  baptism ;  since  she  has  formally  condemned  the  proposi- 


♦  Sess.  xxi.  c.  0, 

t  The  bishop  tells  us  that  he  is  in  possession  of  an  indulgence,  lately  granted  at 
Rome,  for  a  small  sum  of  money;  but  he  does  not  say  who  ^'ranted  it.  In  like 
manner  he  may  buy  forged  Bank  notes  and  counterfeit  coin  in  London  very  cheap, 
if  he  pleases.  ^ 


262  Letter  XLU, 

tion,  that  "  every  penitent  sinner,  who,  after  the  grace  of  Justi- 
fication, obtains  the  remission  of  his  guilt  and  eternal  punish- 
ment, obtains  also  the  remission  of  all  temporal  punishment."* 
The  essential  guilt  and  eternal  punishment  of  sin,  she  declares, 
can  only  be  expiated  by  the  precious  merits  of  our  Redeemer, 
Jesus  Christ;  but  a  certain  temporal  punishment  God  reserves 
for  the  penitent  himself  to  endure,  "  lest  the  easiness  of  his  par- 
don should  make  him  careless  about  falling  back  into  sin."f 
Hence  satisfaction  for  this  temporal  punishment  has  been  insti- 
tuted by  Christ  as  a  part  of  the  sacrament  of  penance;  and 
hence    "  a   Christian  life,"    as    the   council    has    said    above, 
"  ought  to  be  a  penitential  life."     This  council  at  the  same 
time,  declares,  that  this  very  satisfaction  for  temporal  punish- 
ment is  only  efficacious  through  Jesus  Christ.^    Nevertheless,  as 
the  promise  of  Christ  to  the  apostles,  and  St.  Peter  in  particu- 
lar, and  to  their  successors,  is  unlimited  :  WHATSOEVER 
you  shall  loose  upon  earth,  shall  he  loosed  also  in  heaven,  Mat. 
xviii.  18 — xvi.  19;  hence  the  church  believes  and  teaches  that 
her  jujrisdiction  extends  to  this  very  satisfaction,  so  as  to  be  able 
to  remit  it   wholly  or  partiall} ,  in  certain  circumstances,   by 
what  is  called  an  INDULGENCE.^     St.  Paul  exercised  this 
power  in  behalf  of  the  incestuous  Corinthian,  at  his  conversion 
and  the  prayers  of  the  faithful,  2  Cor.  ii.  10;  and  the  church 
has  claimed  and  exercised  the  same  power  ever  since  the  time 
of  the  apostles  down  to  the  present.  ||     V.  Still  this  power,  like 
that  of  absolution,  is  not  arbitrary;  there  must  be  a  just  cause 
for  the  exercise  of  it,  namely,  the  greater  good  of  the  penitent, 
or  of  the  faithful,  or  of  Christendom  in  general ;  and  there  must 
be  a  certain  proportion  between  the  punishment  remitted  and' 
the  good  work  performed. IT     Hence  no  one  can  ever  be  sure 
that  he  has  gained  the  entire  benefit  of  an  indulgence,  though 
he  has  performed  all  the  conditions  appointed  for  this  end  :** 
and  hence,  of  course,  the  pastors  of  the  church  will  have  to  an- 
swer for  it,  if  they  take  upon  themselves  to  grant  indulgences 
for  unworthy  or  insufficient  purposes.     VI.  Lastly,  it  is  the  re-, 
ceived  doctrine  of  the  church  that  an  indulgence,  when  truly 
gained,  is  not  barely  a  relaxation  of  the  canonical  penance  en- 
joined by  the  church,  but  also  an  actual  remission  by  God  of  the 


*  CJonc.  Trid.  Sess.  vi.  can.  30, 
I  Sess.  vi.  cap.  7,  cap.  14.     Sess.  xir.  cap.  8. 
t  Sess.  xiv.  8. 

^  Trid.  Sess.  xxt.   Do  Indulg. 

D  Tertul.  in  Lib.  ad  Mart>r.  c.  i.     St.  Cypr.  1.  3.   Epist.  Concil.  i.    Nic.  Ancyr. 
&C.  V  Bellarm.  Lib.  i.  De  Indul^.  c.  12.  ♦*  Ibid. 


Letter  XLII.  263 

whole  or  part  of  the  temporal  punishment  due  to  it  in  his  sight. 
The  contrary  opinion,  though  held  by  some  tiieologians,  hus 
been  condemned  by  Leo  X,*  and  Pius  VI  :f  und  indeed,  with- 
out the  eflect  here  mentioned,  indulgences  would  not  be  heaven- 
ly treasures,  and  the  use  of  them  woidd  not  be  beneficial,  but  ra- 
ther j^enu'aoM*  to  Christians,  contrary  to  two  declarations  of  the 
last  general  council,  as  Bellarmin  well  argues. J 

The  above  explanation  of  an  indulgence,  conformably  to  the 
doctrine  of  Theologians,  the  decrees  of  Popes,  and  the  defini- 
tions of  Councils,  ought  to  silence  the  objections  and  suppress 
the  sarcasms  of  Protestants  on  this  head :  but  if  it  be  not  su/H- 
cient  for  such  purpose,  I  would  gladly  argue  a  few  points  with 
them  concerning  their  own  indulgences.  Methinks,  Rev.  sir,  I 
see  you  start  at  the  mention  of  this,  and  hear  you  ask,  what  Pro- 
testants hold  the  doctrine  of  indulgences  r — I  answer  you  ;  all 
the  leading  sects  of  them,  with  which  I  am  acquainted.  To  be- 
gin with  the  church  of  England  :  one  of  the  first  articles  I  meet 
with  in  its  canons,  regards  indulgences  and  the  use  that  is  to  be 
made  of  the  money  paid  for  them.^^  In  the  synod  of  1640,  a 
canon  was  made  which  authorized  the  employment  of  commu- 
tation-money, namely,  of  such  sums  as  were  paid  for  indulgen- 
ces from  ecclesiastical  penances,  not  only  in  charitable,  but  also 
in  public  uses.||  At  this  period  the  established  clergy  were  de- 
voting all  the  money  they  could  any  way  procure  to  the  war 
which  Charles  I.  was  preparing  in  defence  of  the  church  and 
state  against  the  Presbyterians  of  Scotland  and  England:  so 
that,  in  fact,  the  money  then  raised  by  indulgences  w^as  employ- 
ed in  a  real  crusade.  It  has  been  before  stated  that  the  second 
offspring  of  Protestantism,  the  Anabaptists,  claimed  an  iudul« 


♦  Art.  19,  inter  Art.  Damn.  Lutheri. 

t  Const.  Auctiyr.  Fid.  t  L.  i.  c.  7,  prop.  4. 

§  "  Ne  quae  fiat  posthac  solemnis  penitentiae  commutatio  nisi  n-.lionibus,  gravio- 
ribus  que  de  causis,  &c.  Deinde  quod  mulcta  ilia  pecuniariavel  in  rclevam  pau- 
perum,  vel  in  alios  pios  usus  ero,2:etur."  Articuli  pro  Clero,  A.  D.  l;iS4,  Sparrow, 
^.194.  The  next  article  is,  "  De  moderandis  quibusdam  indulgentiis  procele- 
bratione  matrimonii,"  &c.  p.  195.  These  indulgences  were  renewe(},  under  the 
same  titles,  in  the  Synod  held  in  London  in  1597.     Sparrow,  pp.  248.  25'2. 

D  "  That  no  Chancellor,  Commissary  or  Ollicial,  shall  have  power  to  commute 
any  penance,  in  whole  or  in  part ;  but  either,  togethiir  with  the  bishop,  &.c.  that  he 
shall  give  a  full  and  just  account  of  sucli  commutations,  to  the  bishop,  who  shall 
see  that  all  such  moneys  shall  be  disposed  of  for  charitable  and  public  uses,  accord- 
ing to  law— saving  always  to  ecclesiastical  officers  their  Jrte  arid  accustomable  fees.^ 
Canon  14,  Sparrow,  p.  368 — In  the  remonstrance  of  grievances  presented  by  a 
committee  of  the  Irish  parliament  to  Charles  I,  one  of  them  was,  that  "  Several  bi- 
^ops  received  great  sums  of  money/or  commntalion  of  penance  (that  Ls  for  indulgen- 
ees)  which  they  converted  to  their  own  use.'*  Commons  Jouru.  quoted  by  CuirT> 
Val.up.  163. 


264  Letter  XLH. 

gence  from  God  himself,  in  quality  of  bis  chosen  ones,  to  despoil 
the  impious,  namely,  all  the  rest  of  mankind,  of  their  property; 
while  the  genuine  Calvinists,  of  all  times,  have  ever  maintained 
that  Christ  has  set  them  free  from  the  observance  of  every  law 
of  God  as  well  as  of  man.  Agreeebly  to  this  tenet,  sir  Richard 
Hill  says,  "  It  is  a  most  pernicious  error  of  the  schoolmen  to 
distinguish  sins  according  to  the  fact,  and  not  according  to  the 
person."*  With  respect  to  patriarch  Luther,  it  is  notorious 
that  he  was  in  the  habit  of  granting  indulgences,  of  various 
kinds,  to  himself  and  his  disciples.  Thus,  for  example,  he  dis- 
pensed with  himself  and  Catharine  Boren  from  their  vows  of  a 
religious  life,  and  particularly  that  of  celibacy :  and  even 
preached  up  adultery  in  his  public  sermons. f  In  like  manner 
he  published  Bulls,  authorizing  the  robbery  of  bishops  and  bi- 
shoprics, and  the  murder  of  Popes  and  cardinals.  But  the  most 
celebrated  of  his  indulgences  is  that  which,  in  conjunction  with 
Bucer  and  Melancthon,  he  granted  to  Philip,  Landgrave  of 
Hesse,  m  consideration  of  the  latter's  protection  of  Protestant- 
ism, for  so  it  is  stated,  to  marry  a  second  wife,  his  former  being 
living.  J  But  if  any  credit  is  due  to  this  same  Bucer,  who,  for 
his  learning,  was  invited  by  Cranmer  and  the  duke  of  Somerset 
into  England,  and  made  the  divinity  professor  of  Cambridge, 
the  whole  business  of  the  pretended  Reformation  was  an  indul- 
gence for  libertinism.  His  words  are  these :  "  The  greater 
part  of  the  people  seem  only  to  have  embraced  the  Orospel,  in 
order  to  shake  oft'  the  yoke  of  discipline  and  the  obligation  of 
fasting,  penance,  &,c.  which  lay  upon  them  in  Popery,  and  to 
live  at  their  pleasure,  enjoying  their  lusts  and  lawless  appetites, 
without  controul.  Hence  they  lent  a  willing  ear  to  the  doc- 
trine that  we  are  saved  by  faith  alone,  and  not  by  good  works, 
having  no  relish  for  them."§ 

I  am,  &c. 

J.M. 

*  Fletcher's  Checks,  vol.  iii. 

t  "  Si  nolit  Domina,  veniat  ancilla,  &c."  Serin.  De  Matrim.  t  v. 

X  This  infamous  indulgence,  with  the  deeds  helonging  to  it,  waa  publ  •^h'id  from 
the  original  by  permission  of  a  descendant  of  the  Landgrave,  and  republiabed  by 
Bosauet    Variat  book  vi  ^  Bucer.  De  Regn.  Chiis.  L  i.  c.  4. 


t     265     ] 


LETTER  XLIII. 
To  the  Rev.  ROBERT  CLA  YTON,  M,  A. 

OJ^  PURGATORY  AJ^D  PRAYERS  FOR  THE  DEAD. 

Rev.  Sir, 

In  the  natural  order  of  our  controversies,  this  is  the  proper 
place  to  treat  of  purgatory  and  prayers  for  the  dead.  On  this 
subject,  bishop  Porteus  begins  with  saying,  "  There  is  no 
Scripture  proof  of  the  existence  of  purgatory :  heaven  and  hell 
\\e  read  of  perpetually  in  the  Bible;  but  purgatory  we  never 
meet  with:  though  surely,  if  there  be  such  a  place,  Christ  and 
his  apostles  would  not  have  concealed  it  from  us."*  I  might 
expose  the  inconclusiveness  of  this  argument  by  the  following 
parallel  one;  the  Scripture  nowhere  commands  us  to  keep  the 
first  day  of  the  week  holy :  we  perpetually  read  of  sanctifying 
the  Sabbath^  or  Saturday;  but  never  meet  with  the  Sunday,  as 
a  day  of  obligation;  though,  if  there  be  such  an  obhgation, 
Christ  and  his  apostles  would  not  have  concealed  it  from  us ! 
I  might  likewise  answer,  with  the  bishop  of  Lincoln,  that  the  in- 
spired Epistles  (and  I  may  add  the  Gospels  also)  "  are  not  to 
be  considered  as  regular  treatises  upon  the  Christian  religion."t 
But  I  meet  the  objection  in  front,  by  saying,  first,  that  the 
apostles  did  teach  their  converts  the  doctrine  of  purgatory, 
among  their  other  doctrines,  as  St.  Chrysostom  testifies,  and 
the  tradition  of  the  church  proves  ;  secondly,  that  the  same  is 
demonstratively  evinced  from  both  the  Old  and  the  New  Tes- 
tament. 

To  begin  with  the  Old  Testament ;  I  claim  a  right  of  consi- 
dering the  two  first  Books  of  Machabees  as  an  integral  part  of 
them;  because  the  Catholic  church  so  considers  them. J  from 
whose  tradition,  and  not  from  that  of  the  Jews,  as  St.  Austin 
signifies,§  our  sacred  canon  is  to  be  formed.  Now  in  the 
second  of  these  books,  it  is  related  that  the  pious  general,  Judas 
Machabeus,  sent  twelve  thousand  drachmas  to  Jerusalem  for 
sacrifices,  to  be  offered  for  his  soldiers,  slain  in  battle,  afle 

*  Confut.  p.  48.  f  Elem.  of  Theol.  vol.  i.  p.  277. 

X  Concil.  Cartag.  iii.     St.  Cyp.  St.  Aug.  lonoc.  I.  Gelas,  &c. 
»  Lib.  18.  De  Civ.  Dei. 

2L 


266  jMter  XLTIL  f 

which  ttarration,  the  inspued  writer  concludes  thus  t  tt  is  there' 
fore  a  holy  and  a  wholesome  thought  to  pray  for  the  dead,  thai 
they  may  be  loosed  from  their  sins.  2  Mac.  xii.  46.  I  need  not 
point  out  the  inseparable  connexion  there  is  between  the  prac- 
tice of  playing  for  the  dead  and  the  belief  of  an  intermediate 
state  of  souls,  since  it  is  evidently  needless  to  pray  for  the  saints 
in  heaven,  and  useless  to  pray  for  the  reprobate  in  hell.  But, 
even  Protestants,  who  do  not  receive  the  Books  of  Machabees, 
as  canonical  Scripture,  venerate  them  as  authentic  and  holy 
records:  as  such,  then,  they  bear  conclusive  testimony  of  the 
belief  of  God's  people,  on  this  head,  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years  before  Christ*  That  the  Jews  were  in  the  habit  of  prac- 
tising some  religious  rites  for  the  relief  of  the  departed,  at  the 
beginning  of  Christianity,  is  clear  from  St.  Paul's  first  Epistle 
to  the  Corinthians,  who  mentions  them,  without  any  censure  of 
them  ;*  and  that  this  people  continue  to  pray  for  their  de- 
ceased brethren,  at  the  present  time,  may  be  learned  from  any 
living  Jew. 

To  come  now  to  the  New  Testament :  what  place,  I  ask,  must 
that  be,  which  our  Saviour  calls  Abraham^s  bosom,  where  the 
soul  of  Lazarus  reposed,  LuJce  xvi.  22,  among  the  other  just 
souls,  till  he  by  his  sacred  passion  paid  their  ransom  ?  Not 
heaven,  otherwise  Dives  would  have  addressed  himself  to  God 
instead  of  Abraham ;  but  evidently  a  middle  state,  as  St.  Austin 
teaches. f  Again,  of  what  place  is  it  that  St.  Petej;  speaks^ 
where  he  says,  Christ  died  for  our  sins  ;  being  put  io  death  in 
the  flesh,  but  enlivened  in  the  spirit ;  in  which  also  coming,  he 
preached  to  those  spirits  that  were  in  prison.  1  Pet.  iii.  19.  It 
is  evidently  the  same  which  is  mentioned  in  the  apostles'  creed  : 
He  descended  into  hell :  not  the  hell  of  the  damned,  to  suffer 
tlieir  torments,  as  the  blasphemer,  Calvin,  asserts,J  but  the 
prison  above-mentioned,  or  Abraham's  bosom,  in  short,  a  middle, 
state.  It  is  of  this  prison,  according  to  the  holy  fathers,^  our 
blessed  Master  speaks,  where  he  says,  /  tell  thee,  thou  shalt  not 
depart  thence,  till  thou  hast  paid  the  very  last  mite.  Luke  xii. 
59.  Lastly,  what  other  sense  can  that  passage  of  St.  Paul's 
Epistle  to  tlie  Corinthians  bear,  than  that  which  the  holy  fa- 
tliers  affix  to  it,||  where  the  apostle  says,  The  day  of  the  Lord 


*  Else  what  shall  they  do  who  are  baptized  for  the  dead,  if  f/»e  dead  rise  10SI  at  alU 
Why  are  they  tlun  baptized  for  theml     1  Cor.  xv.  29. 

t  De  Civit.  Dei,  1.  xv.  c.  20.  X  Instit.  1.  ii.  c.  16. 

^  Tertul.  St.  Cypr.  Origen,  St.  Ambrose,  St.  Jerom,  &c. 

B  Origen,  Horn  14  in  Levit.  &c.  St.  Ambrose  in  Ps.  1 18.  St.  Jerom,  1.  2.  con- 
tra Jovin.     St.  Aug.  in  Ps.  37,  where  l:o  nrt>.»c  ihns  :  "  Purify  me,  0  Lortl  '-^  thU 


Letter  XL  III.  267 

shall  he  revealed  by  fire,  and  the  fire  shall  try  every  man's  work 
of  what  sort  it  is.  If  any  man's  work  abide,  he  shall  receive  a 
reward.  If  any  man's  work  be  burnt,  he  shall  suffer  loss ;  but 
he  himself  shall  be  saved,  yet  so  as  by  fire.  1  Cor.  iii.  13  15 
The  prelate's  diversified  attempts  to  explain  away  these  Scrip- 
tural proofs  of  purgatory,  are  really  too  feeble  and  inconsistent 
to  merit  being  even  mentioned.  I  might  here  add,  as  a  further 
proof,  the  denunciation  of  Christ,  concerning  blasphemy  against 
the  Holy  Ghost :  namely,  that  this  sin  shall  not  be  forgiven 
either  in  this  world  or  in  the  ivorld  to  come,  Mat.  xii.  32 :  which 
words  clearly  imply,  that  some  sins  are  forgiven  in  the  world  to 
come,  as  the  ancient  fathers  show  :*  but  I  hasten  to  the  proofs 
of  this  doctrine  from  tradition,  on  which  head  the  prelate  is  so 
ill  advised  as  to  challenge  Catholics. 

II.  Bp.  Porteus,  then,  advances,  that  "  Purgatory,  in  the 
present  Popish  sense,  was  not  heard  of  for  four  hundred  years 
after  Christ;  nor  universally  received  for  one  thousand  years, 
nor  almost  in  any  other  church  than  that  of  Rome  to  this  day."f 
Here  are  no  less  than  three  egregious  falsities,  which  I  proceed 
to  show,  after  stating  what  his  lordship  seems  not  to  know, 
namely,  that  all  which  is  necessary  to  be  believed,  on  this  sub- 
ject, is  contained  in  the  following  brief  declaration  of  the  coun- 
cil of  Trent :  "  There  is  a  purgatory,  and  the  souls,  detained 
there,  are  helped  by  the  prayers  of  the  faithful,  and  particularly 
by  the  acceptable  sacrifice  of  the  altar. "{  St.  Chrysostom,  tlie 
light  of  the  eastern  church,  flourished  within  three  hundred 
years  of  the  age  of  the  apostles,  and  must  be  admitted  as  an 
unexceptionable  witness  of  their  doctrine  and  practice.  Now 
he  writes  as  follows  :  "  It  was  not  without  good  reason  OR- 
DAINED BY  THE  APOSTLES,  that  mention  should  be 
made  of  the  dead  in  the  tremendous  mysteries,  because  they 
knew  well  that  these  would  receive  great  benefit  from  it."§ 
TertuUian,  who  lived  in  the  age  next  to  that  of  the  apostles, 
speaking  of  a  pious  widow,  says,  "  She  prays  for  the  soul  of 
her  husband,  and  begs  refreshment ||  for  him."  Similar  testi- 
monies of  St.  Cyprian,  in  the  following  age  are  numerous ;  I 
shall  satisfy  myself  with  quoting  one  of  them,  where,  describing 
the  difierence  between  some  souls,  which  are  immediately  ad- 
mitted into  heaven,  and  others,  which  are  detained  in  purga- 

life,  that  I  may  not  need  the  chastising  fire  of  those  who  will  be  saved,  yet  so  as  by 
fire,'' 

♦  St,  Aug.  De  Civit.  Dei.  1. 21,  c.  24.  St.  Greg.  1.  4.  Dialog.  Bed  in  cap.  3,  Marc. 

t  P. 50.  I  Sess.xxY.  DePurg. 

i  In  cap.  i.  Phiilp.  Horn,  3,  II  L.  De  Monogam.  c.  10. 


268  Letter  XLIU. 

tory,  be  says,  "  It  is  one  thing  to  be  waiting  for  pardon ;  an- 
other to  attain  to  glory :  one  thing  to  be  sent  to  prison,  not  to 
go  from  thence  till  the  last  farthing  is  paid ;  another  to  receive 
immediately  the  reward  of  faith  and  virtue :  one  thing  to  suffer 
lengthened  torments  for  sin,  and  to  be  chastised  and  purified  for 
a  long  time  in  that  fire ;  another  to  have  cleansed  away  all  sin 
by  suffering,"*  namely,  by  martyrdom.     It  would  take  up  too 
much  time  to  quote  authorities  on  this  subject  from  St.  Cyril  of 
Jerusalem,  Eusebius,  St.  Epiphanius,  St.  Ambrose,  St.  Jerom, 
St.  Augustin,  and  several  other  ancient  fathers  and  writers,  who 
demonstrate,  that  the  doctrine  of  the  church  was  the  same  tha 
it  is  now,  not  only  within  a  thousand,  but  also  within  four  hun- 
dred years  from  the  time  of  Christ,  with  respect  both  to  pray- 
ers for  the  dead,  and  an  intermediate  state,  which  we  call  pur- 
gatory.    How  express  is  the  authority  of  the  last  named  father, 
in  particular,  where  he  says  and  repeats,  "  Through  the  pray- 
ers and  sacrifices  of  the  church  and  alms-deeds,  God  deals 
more  mercifully  with  the  departed  than  their  sins  deserve  !"f 
How  affecting  is  this  saint's  account  of  the  death  of  his  mother, 
St.  Monica,  when  she  entreated  him  to  remember  her  soul  at 
the  altar,  and  when,  after  her  decease,  he  performed  this  duty,  in 
order,  as  he  declares,  "  to  obtain  the  pardon  of  her  sins  !"J  As 
to  the  doctrine  of  the  oriental  churches,  which  the  bishop  signi- 
fies is  conformable  to  that  of  his  own,  I  affirm,  as  a  fact,  which 
has  been  demonstrated,^  that  there  is  not  one  of  them  which 
agrees  with  it,  nor  one  of  them  which  does  not  agree  with  the 
Catholic  church,  in  the  only  two  points  defined  by  her,  namely, 
as  to  there  being  a  middle  state,  which  we  call  purgatory,  and 
as  to  the  souls,  detained  in  it,  being  helped  by  the  prayers  of 
the  living  faithful.     True  it  is,  they  do  not  generally  believe, 
that  these  souls  are  punished  by  a  material  fire ;  but  neither 
does  our  church  require  a  belief  of  this  opinion  j  and  accord- 
ingly,  she   made   a  union  with  the  Greeks  in  the  council  of 
Florence,  on  their  barely  confessing  and  subscribing  the  afore- 
said two  articles. 

III.  I  should  do  an  injury.  Rev.  sir,  to  my  cause,  were  I  to 
pass  over  the  concessions  of  eminent  Protestant  prelates  and 
other  writers  on  the  matter  in  debate.  On  some  occasions  Lu- 
ther admits  of  purgatory,  as  an  article  founded  on  Scripture.  || 
Melancthon  confesses  that  the  ancients  prayed  for  the  de#d,  and 

♦  S.  Cypr.  1.  4.  ep.  2.  t  Serm.  172.  Enchirid.  cap.  109,  110. 

X  Confess.  1.  ix.  c.  13. 

^  See  the  Confessions  of  the  different  Oriental  churches  in  the  Pcrpetuitc,  &c 
II  Assertiones,  Art.  37.    Disput.  Leipsic. 


Letter  XLIIL  269 

says  that  the  Lutherans  do  not  find  fault  with  it.*  Calvin  inti- 
mates, that  the  souls  of  all  the  just  are  detained  in  Abraliam's 
bosom  till  the  day  of  judgment. f  In  the  first  liturgy  of  the 
church  of  England,  which  was  drawn  up  by  CranintT  and  Rid- 
ley, and  declared  by  act  of  parliament  to  have  hnQw  framed  by 
inspiration  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  there  is  an  express  pray  tr  fur  the 
departed,  that  "  God  would  grant  them  mercy  and  everlasting 
peace."J  It  can  be  shown  that  the  following  bishops  of  your 
church  believed  that  the  dead  ought  to  be  prayed  for,  Andrews, 
Usher,  Montague,  Taylor,  Forbes,  Sheldon,  Barrow  of  St. 
Asaph's  and  Blandford.§  To  these  I  may  add  the  religious  Dr. 
Johnson,  whose  published  Meditations  prove,  that  he  constantly 
prayed  for  his  deceased  wife.  But  what  need  is  there  of  more 
words  on  the  subject,  when  it  is  clear  that  modern  Protestants, 
in  shutting  up  the  Catholic  purgatory  for  imperfect  just  souls, 
have  opened  another  general  one  for  them,  and  all  the  wicked 
of  every  sort  whatsoever  !  It  is  well  known  that  the  disciples 
of  Calvin,  at  Geneva,  and,  perhaps,  every  where  else,  instead 
of  adhering  to  his  doctrine,  in  condemning  mortals  to  eternal 
torments,  without  any  fault  on  their  part,  now  hold  that  the 
most  confirmed  in  guilt  and  the^  finally  impenitent  shall,  in  the 
end,  be  saved  :||  thus  establishing,  as  Fletcher  of  Madeley  ob- 
serves, "  a  general  purgatory."1[  A  late  celebrated  theologi- 
cal, as  well  as  philosophical  writer  of  our  own  country,  Dr, 
Priestly,  being  on  his  deathbed,  called  for  Simpson's  work  On 
the  Duration  of  Future  Punishment,  which  he  recommended  in 
these  terms :  "  It  contains  my  sentiments :  we  shall  all  meet 
finally :  we  only  require  different  degrees  of  discipline,  suited 
to  our  different  tempers,  to  prepare  us  for  final  happiness."** 
Here  again  is  a  general  Protestant  purgatory  :  and  why  should 
Satan  and  his  crew  be  denied  the  benefit  of  it  ?  But  to  confine 
myself  to  eminent  divines  of  the  estabUshcd  church.  One  of 
its  celebrated  preachers,  who,  of  course,  "  never  mentions  hell 
to  ears  polite,"  expresses  his  wish,  "  to  banish  the  subject  of 
everlasting  punishment  from  all  pulpits,  as  containing  a  doc- 
trine, at  once  improper  and  uncertain,"f  f  which  sentiment  is 
applauded  by  another  eminent  divine,  who  reviews  that  sermon 

*  Apolog.  Conf.  Aug.  t  Instit.  1.  iii.  c.  5. 

i  See  the  form  in' Collier's  Ecc.  Hist.  vol.  ii.  p.  257. 

(j  Collier's  Hist~N.  B.  The  present  bishop  of  Exeter,  in  a  sermon  just  publish- 
ed, prays  for  the  soul  of  our  poor  princess  Charlotte,  "  as  far  as  this  is  lawful  and 
profitable." 

II  Encyclo.  Art.  Geneva.  H  Checks  to  Antinom.  vol.  4. 

**  See  Edinb.  Review.  Oct.  1806. 

tt  SermonsbyRev.  W.  GilpiB,Preb.  ofSarum. 


i70  Letter  XLIIL 

in  the  British  Critic*     Another  modern  divine  censures  **  th« 
threat  of  eternal  perdition  as  a  cause  of  infidelity."!     The  re- 
nowned Dr.  Paley,  (but  here  we  are  getting  into  quite  novel 
systems  of  theology,  which  will  force  a  smile  from  its  old  stu^ 
dents,  notwithstanding  the  awfulness  of  the  subject)  Dr.  Paley, 
I  say,  so  far  softens  the  punishment  of  the  infernal  regions,  as 
to  suppose  that,  "  There  may  be  very  little  to  choose  between 
the  condition  of  some  who  are  in  hell,  and  others  who  are  in 
heaven  !"J     In  the  same  liberal  spirit  the  Cambridge  professor 
of  divinity  teaches,  that  "  God's  wrath  and  damnation  are  more 
terrible  in  the  sound  than  the  sense  !§  and  that  being  damned 
does  not  imply  any  fixed  degree  of  evil." |]     In  another  part  of 
his  Lectures,  he  expresses  his  hope,  and  quotes  Dr.  Hartley,  as 
expressing  the  same,  that  "  all  men  will  be  ultimately  happy, 
when  punishment  has  done  its  work  in  reforming  principles  and 
conduct."ir     If  this  sentiment  be  not  sufficiently  explicit  in  fa- 
vour of  purgatory,  take  the  following,  from  a  passage  in  which 
he  is  directly  lecturing  on  the  subject.   "  With  regard  to  the  doc- 
trine of  purgatory,  though  it  may  not  be  founded  either  in  rea- 
son or  in  Scripture,  it  is  not  unnatural.     Who  can  bear  the 
thought  of  dwelling  in  everlasting  torments  ?  Yet  who  can  say 
that  a  God  everlastingly  just,  will  not  inflict  them  ?     The  mind 
of  man  seeks  for  some  resource  :  it  finds  one  only ;  in  conceiv- 
ing that  some  temporary  pmilshment,  after  death,  may  purify 
the  soul  from  its  moral  pollutions,  and  make  it,  at  last,  accept'- 
able,  even  to  a  deity.  Infinitely  pure."** 

IV.  Bishop  Porteus  intimates  that  the  doctrine  of  a  middle 
state  of  souls  was  borrowed  from  Pagan  fable  and  philosophy. 
— In  answer  to  this,  I  say,  that,  if  Plato,y-j-  Virgil,  and  other 
heathens,  ancient  and  modern,  as  likewise  Mahomet  and  his 
disciples,  together  with  the  Protestant  writers  quoted  above, 
have  embraced  this  doctrine,  it  only  shows  how  conformable  it 
is  to  the  dictates  of  natural  religion.  I  have  proved,  by  va-, 
rious  arguments,  that  a  temporary  punishment  generally  re- 
mains due,  to  sin,  after  the  guilt  and  eternal  punishment  due  to 
It,  have  been  remitted.  Again,  we  know  from  Scripture,  thai 
even  the  just  man  falls  seven  times,  Prov.  xxiv.  17,  and  that  men 


♦  British  Critic,  Jan.  1802.  -#" 

t  Rev.  Mr.  Polwhele's  Let.  to  Dr.  Hawker. 

X  MoraJ  andPolit.  Pl)ilos.  ^  Lect.  vol.  iii.p.  154.  B  Ibid. 

%  Vol.  ii.  p.  390.  It  is  to  be  observed  that  the  doctrine  of  the  final  salvation  Of 
the  wicked  is  expressly  condemned  in  the  42d  Article  of  the  church  of  England,  A. 
D.  1552.  **  Vol.  iv.  p.  112. 

t1  Plato  in  Gorgia,  Virgil's  Mueid,  1.  6,  the  Koran. 


Letter  XLIII.  271 

must  give  an  account  of  every  idle  tvord  that  they  speak,  Mat.  xii- 
36.     On  the  other  hand,  we  are  conscious  that  there  is  not  aa 
instant  of  our  Hfe,  in  which  this  may  not  suddenly  terniinair, 
without  the    possibility  of  our  calling  upon  God  for  mercy! 
What  then,  I  ask,  will  become  of  souls  which  are  surprised  in 
either  of  those  predicaments  ?  We  are  sure  from  Scripture  and 
reason  that  nothing  defiled  shall  enter  heaven,  Rev.  xxi.  27 : 
will  then  our  just  and  merciful  Judge  make  no  distinction  in 
guiltiness,  as  bishop  Fowler  and  other  rigid  Protestants  main- 
tain f*     Will  he  condemn  to  the  same  eternal  punishment  the 
poor  child  who  has  died  under  the  guilt  of  a  lie  of  excuse,  and 
the  abandoned  wretch  who  has  died  in  the  act  of  murdering  his 
father  ?     To  say  that  he  will,  is  so  monstrous  a  doctrine  in  it- 
self, and  so  contrary  to  Scripture,  which  declares  that  God  will 
render  to  every  man  according  to  his  deeds,  Rom.  ii.  G,  that  it 
seems  to  be  universally  exploded. f     The  evident  consequence 
of  this  is,  that  there  are  some  venial  or  pardonable  sins,  for  the 
expiation  of  which,  as  well  as  of  the  temporary  punishment  due 
to  other  sins,  a  place  of  temporary  punishment  is  provided  in 
the  next  life,  where,  however,  the  souls  detained  may  be  relieved, 
by  the  prayers,  alms,  and  sacrifices  of  the  faithful  here  on  earth. 
O  !  how  consoling  is  the  belief  and  practice  of  Catholics  in  this 
matter,  compared  with  those  of  Protestants  !     The  latter  show 
their  regard  for  their  departed  friends  in  costly  pomp  and  fea- 
thered pageantry ;  while  their  burial  service  is  a  cold,  discon- 
solate ceremony ;  and  as  to  any  further  communication  with  tlie 
deceased,  when  the  grave  closes  on  their  remains,  they  do  not 
so  much  as  imagine  any.     On  the  other  hand,  we  Catholics 
know,  that  death  itself  cannot  dissolve  the  communion  of  saints, 
which  subsists  in  our  church,  nor  prevent  an  intercourse  of 
kind  and  often  beneficial  offices  between  us  and  our  departed 
friends.     Oftentimes  we  can  help  them  more  ellcctually,  in  the 
other  world,  by  our  prayers,  our  sacrifices,  and  our  alms-deeds, 
than  we  could  in  this  by  any  temporary  benefits  we  could  be- 
stow upon  them.     Hence  we  are  instructed  to  celebrate  the  ob- 
sequies of  the  dead  by  all  such  good  works;  and,  accordingly, 
our  funeral  service  consists  of  psalms  and  prayers,  ofl'6-ed  up 
for  their  repose  and  eternal  felicity.     These  acts  of  devotion, 
pious  Catholics  perform  for  the  deceased,  who  were  near  and 
dear  to  them,  and  indeed  for  the  dead  in  general,  every  day, 
but  particularly  on  the  respective  anniversaries  of  the  deceased. 

*  Calvin,!,  iii.  c.  12.     Fo-vvlw  in  Watson's  Tra.ts,  vol.  vL  p.  3S2. 
t  See  Dr.  Hey,  vol.  Ui.  pp.  384,451,  453. 


272  Letter  XLIV. 

Such  benefits,  we  are  assured,  will  be  paid  with  rich  interest, 
by  those  souls  to  whose  bliss  we  have  contributed,  when  they 
attain  to  it ;  and  if  they  should  not  be  in  a  condition  to  help  us, 
the  God  of  mercy  at  least  will  abundantly  reward  our  charity. 
On  the  other  hand,  what  a  comfort  and  support  must  it  be  to 
our  minds,  when  our  turn  comes  to  descend  into  the  grave,  to 
reflect  that  we  shall  continue  to  live  in  the  constant  thoughts 
and  daily  devotions  of  our  Catholic  relatives  and  friends ! 

I  am,  &c. 

J.  M 


LETTER  XLIV. 
To  the  Rev.  ROBERT  CLAYTON,  M.  A. 

EXTREME  VKCTIOK, 

Rev.  Sir, 
The  Council  of  Trent  terms  the  sacrament  of  extreme  unc- 
tion, the  Consummation  of  Penance,  and  therefore,  as  bishop 
Porteus  makes  this  the  subject  of  a  charge  against  our  church, 
here  is  the  proper  place  for  me  to  answer  it.  His  lordship 
writes  a  long  chapter  upon  it,  because  his  business  is  to  gloss 
over  the  clear  testimony  which  the  apostle  St.  James  bears  to 
the  reality  of  this  sacrament :  in  return,  I  shall  write  a  short  let- 
ter  in  refutation  of  his  chapter,  because  I  have  little  more  to  do 
than  to  cite  that  testimony,  as  it  stands  in  the  New  Testament : 
it  is  this  :  Is  any  man  sick  among  you,  let  him  bring  in  the  priests 
of  the  church,  and  let  them  pray  over  him,  anointing  him  with 
oil,  in  the  name  of  the  Lord.  And  the  prayer  of  faith  shall  save 
the  sick  man  ;  and  the  Lord  shall  raise  him  up,  and  if  he  be  in 
sins,  they  shall  be  forgiven  him,  James  v.  14,  15.  Here  we  see 
all  that  is  requisite,  according  to  the  English  Protestant  Cate- 
chism, to  constitute  a  sacrament,*  for  there  "  is  an  outward 
visible  sign,"  namely,  the  anointing  with  oil :  there  "  is  an  in- 
ward spiritual  grace,  given  unto  us,"  namely,  the  saving  of  the 
sick  and  the  forgive7ieis  of  his  sins.    Lastly,  there  is  the  Ordina- 

♦  In  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 


Letter  XLIV.  573 

tion  of  Christ,  as  the  means  hy  which  the  same  is  received;^''  un- 
less the  bishop  chooses  to  allege,  that  the  holy  apostle  fabricated 
a  Sacrament,  or  means  of  grace,  without  any  authority  for  this 
purpose  from  his  heavenly  Master.  What  then  does  his  lord- 
ship say,  in  opposition  to  this  divine  warrant  for  our  Sacra- 
ment ?  He  says,  that  the  anointing  of  the  sick  by  elders  or  old 
men,  was  the  appointed  method  of  miraculously  curing  them  in 
primitive  times,  which  would  imply,  that  no  Christian  died  in 
those  times,  except  when  either  oil  or  old  men  were  not  to  be 
met  with !  He  adds,  that  the  forgiveness  of  the  sick  manh  sim^^ 
means  the  cures  of  his  corporal  diseases!*  And  after  all  thig,' 
he  boasts  of  building  his  religion  on  mere  Scripture,  in  its  plain, 
unglossed  meaning!!  In  reading  all  this,  I  own  I  cannot  help 
revolving  in  my  mind  the  above  quoted  profane  parody  of  Lu- 
ther, on  the  first  words  of  Scripture,  in  which  he  ridicules  the 
distortion  of  it  by  many  Protestants  of  his  time.J  With  the 
same  confidence  his  lordship  adds :  "  Our  laying  aside  a  cere- 
mony (the  anointing)  which  has  long  been  useless,  &,c.  can  be  no 
loss,  while  every  thing  that  is  truly  valuable  in  St.  James's  di- 
rection is  preserved  in  our  office  for  visiting  the  sick."§  Ex- 
actly in  tliis  manner  our  friends,  the  Quakers,  undertake  to 
prove,  that,  in  laying  aside  the  ceremony  of  washing  catechu- 
mens with  water,  they  "  have  preserved  every  thing  that  is 
truly  valuable"  in  the  sacrament  of  Baptism!  ||  But  where 
shall  we  find  an  end  of  the  inconsistencies  and  impieties  of  de- 
luded Christians,  who  refuse  to  hear  that  church  which  Christ 
has  appointed  to  explain  to  them  the  truths  of  religion  ? 

There  is  not  more  truth  in  the  prelate's  assertion,  that  there 
is  no  mention  of  anointing  with  oil,  among  the  primitive  Chris- 
tians, except  in  miraculous  cures,  during  the  first  600  years : 
for  the  celebrated  Origen,  who  was  born  in  the  age  next  to  that 
of  the  apostles,  after  speaking  of  an  humble  confession  of  sins, 
as  a  mean  of  obtaining  their  pardon,  adds  to  it,  the  anointing 
with  oil,  prescribed  hy  St.  James,^  St.  Chrysostom,  ^vho  lived 
in  the  fourth  century,  speaking  of  the  power  of  priests  in  remit- 
ting sin,  says,  they  exert  it  when  they  are  called  in  to  perform 
the  rite  mentioned  by  St.  James,  &c.'  *  The  testimony  of  Pope 
Innocent  I.  in  the  same  age,  is  so  express  as  to  the  warrant  for 
this  sacrament,  the  matter,  the  minister,  and  the  subjects  of 

*  p.  59.  t  P-  69. 

X  *'  In  principio  Deus  creavit  caelum  et  terram :  In  the  beginning  the 
euckoo  devoured  the  sparrow  and  its  feathers. 

S  P.  61.  n  Barclay's  Apology,  Prop.  12. 

H  Horn.  a.  m  Lcrit  **  De  Sacerd.  1.  m. 

3M 


174  LeUer  XLIT. 

t  ;*  that  though  the  bishop  alluded  to  the  testimony,  he  does 
not  choose  to  grapple  with  it,  or  even  to  quote  it.f  I  pass  over 
the  irrefragable  authorities  of  St.  Cyril  of  Alexandria,  Victor  of 
Antioch,  St.  Gregory  the  Great,  and  our  Venerable  Bede,  in 
order  once  more  to  recur  to  that  short  but  convincing  proof, 
that  the  Catholic  church  has  not  invented  those  sacraments  and 
doctrines  in  latter  ages,  which  Protestants  assert  were  unknown 
in  the  primitive  ages.  The  Nestorians  then  broke  off  from  the 
communion  of  the  church  in  431,  and  the  Eutychians  in  451  : 
these  rival  sects  exist,  in  numerous  congregations,  throughout 
the  east,  at  the  present  day,  and  they  both,  as  well  as  the 
Greeks,  Armenians,  he.  maintain,  in  belief  and  practice,  £a;^reme 
Unction  as  one  of  the  seven  sacraments.  Nothing  can  so  satis- 
factorily vindicate  our  church  from  the  charge  of  imposition  or 
innovation,  in  the  particulars  mentioned,  as  these  facts  do. 
How  much  more  consistently  has  the  impious  Friar,  Martin  Lu- 
ther, acted  in  denying  at  once  the  authority  of  St.  James's 
Epistle,  and  condemning  it  as  "  a  chaffy  composition,  and  un- 
worthy an  apostle,"J  than  Bp.  Porteus,  with  his  confederates 
do,  who  attempt  to  explain  away  the  clear  proofs  of  extreme 
unction,  contained  in  it  ?  In  the  mean  time,  in  spite  of  them 
all,  pious  Catholics  will  continue  to  reap  inestimable  consola- 
tion and  grace,  in  the  time  of  man's  greatest  need,  for  the  sake 
of  which  this  and  the  other  helps  of  their  church,  were  provided 
by  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  • 

I  am,  he, 

J.  M. 


Epist.  ad  Decent.  Eu^b.  t  P.  61. 

"  Stramminosa."    Prefat.  in  Ep.  Jac.  Jense  de  Captir.  Babyl. 


[    275     ] 

LETTER  XLV. 
To  the  Rev.  ROBERT  CLAYTOjY,  M.  A, 

WHETHER  THE  POPE  BE  A:N'TICHRIST. 

Rev.  Sir, 
There  remains  but  one  more  question  of  doctrine  to  be  dis- 
cussed   between  me  and  your  favourite  controvertist,   bishop 
Porteus,  which  is  concerning  the  character  and  power  of  the 
Pope ;  and  this  he  compresses  into  a  narrow  compass,  among  a 
variety  of  miscellaneous  matters,  in  the  latter  part  of  his  book. 
However,  as  it  is  a  doctrine  of  first-rate  importance,  against 
which  I  make  no  doubt  but  several  of  your  Salopian  Society 
have  been  early  and  bitterly  prejudiced,  I  propose  to  treat  it,  at 
some  length,  and  in  a  regular  way.     To  do  this,  I  must  begin 
with  the  inquir}^,  whether  the  Pope  be  really  and  truly,  the  man 
of  sin,  and  the  son  of  jyerdition,  described  by  St.  Paul,  2  Thess. 
ii.  1,  10;  in  short,  the  Antichi'ist  spoken  of  by  St.  John,  1  John 
ii.  18,  and  called  by  him,  A  beast  with  seven  heads  and  ten 
horns,  Revel,  xiii.  1,  whose  See  or  church  is  the  great  harlot, 
the  mother  of  the  fornications  and  abominations  of  the  earth,  Ibid- 
xvii.  5.     I  shudder  to  repeat  these  blasphemies,  and  I  blush  to 
hear  them  uttered  by  my  fellow  Christians  and  countrymen, 
who  derive  their  Iitur|2:y,  their  ministry,  their  Christianity,  and 
civilization,  from  the  Pope  and  the  church  of  Rome ;  but  they 
have  been  too  generally  taught  by  the  learned,  and  believed  by 
the  ignorant,  for  me  to  pass  them  by  in  silence  on  this  occasion. 
One  of  bishop  Porteus's  colleagues,  bishop  Hallifax,  speaks  of 
this  doctrine  concerning  the  Pope  and  Rome,  as  long  being 
"  the  common  symbol  of  Protestantism."*     Certain  it  is,  that 
the  author  of  it,  the  outrageous  Martin  Luther,  may  be  said  to 
have  established  Protestantism  upon  this  principle :  he  had  at 
first  submitted  his  religious  controversies  to  the  decision  of  (he 
Pope,  protesting  to  him  thus :    "  Whether  you    give   life    or 
death,   approve  or  reprove,  as   you   may  judge  best,   I  will 
hearken  to  your  voice,  as  to  that  of  Christ  himself  :"f  but  no 
sooner  did  Pope  Leo  condemn  his  doctrine,  than  he  published 

♦  Sermons  by  bishop  Hallifax,  preached  at  the  Lecture  founded  by  the  late  bi- 
shop Warburton,  to  prove  the  apostasy  of  Papal  Rome,  p.  27. 
t  Epist.  ad  LeoQ  X.  A.  D.  1518. 


276  Letter  XLV. 

his  book  "  Against  the  execrable  Bull  of  Antichrist,"*  as  he 
qualified  it.     In  like  manner,  Melancthon,  Bullinger,  and  many 
others  of  Luther's  followers,  publicly  maintained,  that  the  Pope 
is  Antichrist,  as  did  afterwards  Calvin,  Beza,  and  the  writers  of 
that  party  in  general.     This  party  considered  this  doctrine  so 
essential,  as  to  vote  it  an  article  of  faith,  in  their  synod  of  Gap, 
held  in  1603.f     The  writers  in  defence  of  this  impious  tenet  in 
our  island,  are  as  numerous  as  those  of  the  whole  continent  put 
together,  John  Fox,  Whitaker,  Fulke,  Willet,  sir  Isaac  Newton, 
Mede,  Lowman,  Towson,  Bicheno,  Kett,  &ic.  with  the  bishops. 
Fowler,   Warburton,  Newton,   Hallifax,    Hurd,  Watson,    and 
others,  too  numerous  to  be  here  mentioned.     One  of  these  wri- 
ters, whose  work  has  but  just  appeared,  has  collected  a  new  and 
quite  whimsical  system  from  the  Scriptures  concerning  Anti- 
christ.    Hitherto,  Protestant  expositors  have  been  content  to 
apply  the  character  and  attributes  of  Antichrist  to  a  succession 
of  Roman  pontifl's;  but  the  Rev.  H.  Kett  professes  to  have  dis- 
covered, that  the  said  Antichrist  is,  at  the  same  time,  every 
Pope  who  has  filled  the  See  of  Rome,  since  the  year  756,  to  the 
number  of  one  hundred  and  sixty,  together  with  the  whole  of 
what  he  calls  "  the  Mahometan  power,"  from  a  period  more 
remote  by  a  century  and  a  half,  and  the  whole  of  infidelity, 
which  he  traces  to  a  still  more  ancient  origin  than  even  Ma- 
hometanism.J 

That  the  first  Pope,  St.  Peter,  on  whom  Christ  (feclared, 
that  he  built  his  church.  Mat.  xvi.  18,  was  not  Antichrist,  I  trust 
I  need  not  prove,  nor,  indeed,  his  third  successor  in  the  Pope- 
dom, St.  Clement,  since  St.  Paul  testifies  of  him,  that  his  name 
is  written  in  the  book  of  life,  Phil.  iv.  3.  In  like  manner,  there 
is  no  need  of  my  demonstrating,  that  the  See  of  Rome  was  not 
the  harlot  of  Revelations,  when  St.  Paul  certified  of  its  mem- 
ders,  that  their  faith  ivas  spoken  of  throughout  ike  ivhole  world, 
Rom.  i.  8.  At  what  particular  period,  then,  I  now  ask,  as  I 
asked  Mr.  Brown,  in  one  of  my  former  letters,  did  the  grand 
apostasy  take  place,  by  which  the  head  pastor  of  the  church  of 
Christ,  became  his  declared  enemy,  in  short,  the  Antichrist,  and 
by  which  the  church,  whose  faith  had  been  divinely  authenti- 
cated, became  the  great  harlot,  full  of  the  names  of  blasphemy  ^ 
This  revolution,  had  it  really  taken  place,  would  have  been  the 

0 

*  Tom.iL  t  Bossuet'a  Variat.  P.  ii.  B.  13. 

\  Histofy  of  the  Interpreter  of  Prophecy,  by  H.  Kett,  B.  D.  This  writer's  at. 
tempt  to  transform  the  great  supporters  of  the  Pope,  St.  Jerom,  Pope  Gregory  I, 
St.  Bernard,  &c.  into  witnesses  that  the  Pope  is  Antichrist,  because  they  pon- 
denin  certain  acta  as  Anticliristian,  is  truly  richculous. 


Letter  XLV,  277 

greatest  and  the  most  remarkable  that  ever  happened  since  the 
deluge :  hence,  we  might  expect,  that  the  witnesses,  who  profess 
to  bear  testimony  to  its  reality,  would  agree,  as  to  the  time  of 
its  taking  place.  Let  us  now  observe  how  far  this  is  the  fact. 
The  Lutheran  Braunbom,  who  writes  the  most  copiously,  and 
the  most  confidently  of  this  event,  tells  us,  that  the  Popish  An- 
tichrist was  born  in  the  year  of  Christ  86,  that  he  grew  to  his 
full  size  in  376,  that  he  was  at  his  greatest  strength  in  636,  that 
he  began  to  decline  in  1086,  that  he  would  die  in  1640,  and 
that  the  world  would  end  in  1711.*  Sebastian  Francus  af- 
firms, that  Antichrist  appeared  immediately  after  the  apostles, 
and  caused  the  external  church,  with  its  faith  and  sacraments, 
to  disappear.!  The  Protestant  church  of  Transylvania  pub- 
lished that  Antichrist  first  appeared  A.  D.  200.  J  Napper  de- 
clared that  his  coming  was  about  313,  and  that  Pope  Silvester 
was  the  man.§  Melancthon  says,  that  Pope  Zozimus,  in  420, 
was  the  first  Antichrist,  ||  while  Beza  transfers  this  character  to 
the  great  and  good  St.  Leo,  A.  D.  440.^  Fleming  fixes  on 
the  year  606  as  the  year  of  this  great  event,  Bp.  Newton  on 
the  year  727  ;  but  all  agree,  says  the  Rev.  Henry  Kett,  "  that 
the  Antichristian  power  was  fully  established  in  757,  or  758."** 
Notwithstanding  this  confident  assertion,  Cranmer's  brother-in- 
law,  Bullinger,  had,  long  before,  assigned  the  year  763  as  the 
era  of  this  grand  revolution,ff  and  Junius  had  put  it  off  to 
1073.  Musculus  could  not  discover  Antichrist  in  the  church 
till  about  1200,  Fox  not  till  1300,J{  and  Martin  Luther,  as  \ye 
have  seen,  not  till  his  doctrine  was  condemned  by  Pope  Leo  in 
1520.  Such  are  tlie  inconsistencies  and  contradictions  of  those 
learned  Protestants,  who  profess  to  see  so  clearly  the  verifica- 
tion of  the  prophecies  concerning  Antichrist  in  the  Roman  pon- 
tifls.  I  say  contradictions,  because  those  among  them  who  pro- 
nounce Pope  Gregory,  or  Leo  the  Great,  or  Pope  Silvester,  to 
have  been  Antichrist^  must  contradict  those  others,  who  admit 
them  to  have  been  respectively  Christian  pastors  and  saints. 
Now  what  credit  do  men  of  sense  give  to  an  account  of  any 
sort,  the  vouchers  for  which  contradict  each  other  ?  Certainly 
none  at  all. 

Nor  are  the  predictions  of  these  egregious  interpreters,  con- 
cerning the  death  of  Antichrist,  and  the  destruction  of  Popery, 
more  consistent  with  one  another,  than  their  accounts  of  the 

*  Bayle's  Diet.  Braunbom.  t  De  Alvegand.  Stat.  Ecdes. 
X  De  Abolend.  Christ,  per  Antichris.  ^  Upon  the  Revel. 

H  In  locis  postremo  edit.  ^  In  Confess  General. 

♦*  Vol.  ii.  p.  58.  tt  In  Apoc.  U  In  Eandem. 


278  Letter  XLV* 

birth  and  progress  of  them  both.     We  have  seen  above,  that 
Braunbom  prognosticated  that  the  death  of  the  papal  Anti- 
christ would  take  place  in  the  year  1640.     John  Fox  foretold 
it  would  happen  in  1666.     The  incomparable  Joseph  Mede,  as 
bishop  Hallifax  calls  him,*  by  a  particular  calculation  of  his 
own  invention,  undertook  to  demonstrate  that  the  Papacy  would 
be  finally  destroj^ed  in  1653.f    The  Calvinist  minister  Jurieau, 
who  had  adopted  this  system,  fearing  that  the  event  would  not 
verify  it,  found  a  pretext  to  lengthen  the  term,  first  to  1690, 
and  afterwards  to  1710.     But  he  lived  to  witness  a  disappoint- 
ment   at    each    of  these   periods. J     Alix,   another  Huguenot 
preacher,   predicted  that  the  fatal  catastrophe  would  certainly 
take  place  in  1716.§     Whiston,  who  pretended  to  find  out  the 
longitude,  pretended  also  to  discover  that  the  Popedom  would 
terminate  in  17H  :  finding  himself  mistaken,  he  guessed  a  se- 
cond time,  and  fixed  on  the  year  1735.||     At  length,  Mr.  Kett, 
from  the  success  of  his  Antichrist  of  Infidelity  against  his  Anti- 
christ of  Popery,  about  twenty  years  ago,  (for  he  feels  no  diffi- 
culty in  dividing  Satan  against  himself  Mat.  xii.  6,)  foretold 
that  the  long  wished  for  event  was  at  the  eve  of  being  accon>- 
plishedjir  and  Mr.  Daubeny  having,  with  several  other  preach- 
ers, witnessed  Pope  Pius  VI.  in  chains,  and  Rome  possessed  by 
French  Atheists,  sounds  the  trumpet  of  victory,  and  exclaims, 
all  is  accomplished.**     Empty  triumph  of  the  enemies  of  the 
church  !     They  ought  to  have  learned,  from  her  Itngthened 
history,  that  she  never  proves  the  truth  of  Christ's  promises  so 
evidently  as  when  she  seems  sinking  under  the  waves  of  perse- 
cution ;  and  that  the  chair  of  Peter  never  shines  so  gloriously, 
as  when  it  is  filled  by  a  dying  martyr,  like  Pius  VI,  or  a  cap- 
tive confessor,  like  Pius  VII ;  however  triumphant  for  a  time, 
their  persecutors  may  appear  ! 

But  these  dealers  in  prophecy  undertake  to  demonstrate  from 
the  characters  of  Antichrist,  as  pointed  out  by  St.  Paul  and  St. 
John,  that  this  succession  of  Popes  is  the  very  man  in  question  : 
accordmglv  the  bishop  of  Landaff*  says;  "  I  have  known  the 
infideiiiy  ol  more  than  one  young  man  happily  removed,  by 
showing  him  the  characters  of  Popery  delineated  by  St.  Paul, 
in  his  prophecy  concerning  The  Man  of  Sin,  2  Thess.  ii.  and 


*   P.  286.  t  Bayle's  Diet  t  Ibid.  §  Ibid^ 

0  Esasyon  Revel.  IT  Vol.  ii.  chap.  1. 

"■^Th^'  fall  of  Papal  Rome.  In  like  manner  G.  S.  Faber,  in  his  two  Sermons 
before  the  University  of  Oxford,  in  1799,  boasts  that  "  the  immense  Gothic  struo- 
ture  of  Popery,  built  on  superstition  and  buttressed  with  tortures,  has  crumbled 
to  dust" 


Letter  XLV. 


279 


iQ  that  concerning  the  apostasy  of  the  latter  times,  1  Tim.  iv. 
1."*     In  proof  of  this  point,  he  repubhshes  the  Dissenter,  Benl 
5on's  Dissertation  on  The  man  of  Sin;f  I  purpose,  therefore 
making  a  few  remarks  on  the  leading  points  of  this  adopti\4 
child  of  his  lordship,  as  also  upon  some  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Rett's 
illustrations  of  them.    Fii:st,  then,  we  all  know  that  the  Revela- 
tion of  the  Man  of  Sin  will  be  accompanied  with  a  revolt  or 
falling  off,  in  other  words,  with  a  great  apostasy ;  but  it  is  a 
question  to  be  discussed  between  me  and  bishop  Watson,  whe- 
ther this  character  of  apostasy  is  more  applicable  to  the  Ca*' 
tholic  church,  or  to  that  class  of  Religionists  who  adopt  his 
opinions  ?     To  decide  this  point,  let  me  ask,  what  are  the  first 
and  principal  articles  of  the  three  creeds  professed  by  his  church 
as  well  as  by  ours,  that  of  the  apostles,  that  of  Nice,  and  that 
of  St.  Athanasius,  as  likewise  of  his  articles,  his  liturgy,  and 
his  canons  ^     Incontestably  those  which  profess  a  belief  in  the 
blessed  Trinity,  and  the  incarnation  of  the  consubstantial  Sod 
of  the  eternal  Father.     Now  it  is  notorious,  that  every  Catholic 
throughout  the  world,  holds  these  the  fundamental  articles  of 
Christianity  as  firmly  now  as  St.  Athanasius  himself  did  fifteen 
hundred  years  ago  :  but  what  says  his  lordship,  with  number- 
less other  Protestant  Christians  of  this  country,  on  these  heads.'* 
Let  the  preface  to  his  Collection  be  consulted,|  in  which,  if  he 
does  not  openly  deny  the  Trinity,  he  excuses  the  Unitarians, 
who  deny  it,  on  the  ground  that  they  are  afraid  of  becoming 
idolaters  hy  worshipping  Jesus  Christ.^     Let  his  charges  be  ex- 
amined :  in  one  of  which  he  says  to  his  clergy,  that  "  he  does 
not  think  it  safe  to  tell  them  what  the  Christian  doctrines  are  ;"[| 
no,  not  so  much  as  the  unity  and  trinity  of  God.     In  another 
charge,  however,  the  bishop  assumes  more  courage,  and  in- 
forms his  clergy,  that  *'  Protestantism    consists    in    believing 
what  each  one  pleases,  and  in  professing  what  he  berieves.** 
How  much  should  I  rejoice  to  have  this  question  o/  apostasy, 
between  the  bishop  of  Landaft'  and  me,  decided  by  Luther,  » 
^  Calvin,  Beza,   Cranmer,   Ridley,  and  James  I,  only  for  the   •: 
proofs  which  history  affords  me,  that,  not  content  with  exclud- 
ing him  from  the  class  of  Christians,  they  would    assuredly 
burn  him  at  the  stake  as  an  apostate.     The  second  character  of 
Antichrist,   set  down  by  St.  Paul,  is,  that  he  opposeth  and  i$ 
lifted  up  above  all  that  is  called  God^  or  that  is  worshipped,  so 


•  Bp,  Watson's  Collect,  p.  7.  t  Ibid.  p.  268* 

:  Vol.  i.  Pref.  p.  15,  &c.  ^  P.  17. 

jl  Bishop  WatsoD'3  Charge,  1795. 


280  Letter  XLF. 

that  he  sitteth  in  the  Temple  of  God,  showing  himself  as  if  he 
were  God,  2  Thess.  ii.  4.     This  character  Mr.  Benson  and  bi- 
shop Watson  think  applicable  to  the  Pope,  who,  they   say, 
claims  the  attributes  and  homage  due  to  the  Deity.     I  leave 
you.  Rev.  sir,  and  your  friends,  to  judge  of  the  truth  of  this 
character,  when  I  inform  you,  that  the  Pope  has  his  confessor, 
like  other  Catholics,  to  whom  he  confesses  his  sins  in  private  j 
and  that  every  day,  in  saying  mass,  he  bows  before  the  altar, 
and  in  the  presence  of  the  people  confesses,  that  he  has  "  sinned 
in  thought,  word,  and  deed,"  begging  them  to  pray  to  God  for 
^  him,  and  that  afterwards,  in  the  more  solemn  part  of  it^  he  pro- 
fesses "  his  hopes  of  forgiveness,  not  through  his  own  merits, 
but  through  the  bounty  and  grace  of  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord."* 
The  third  mark  of  Antichrist  is,  that  his  coming  is  according  to 
the  working  of  Satan,  in  all  power,  and  signs,  and  lying  won- 
ders, 2  Thess.  ii.  9.     From  this  passage  of  Holy  Writ,  it  ap- 
pears that  Antichrist,  whenever  he  does  come,  will  work  false, 
illusive  prodigies,  as  the  magicians  of  Pharaoh  did ;  but,  from 
the  divine  promises,  it  is  evident  that  the  disciples  of  Christ 
would  continue  to  work  true  miracles,  such    as   he    himself 
wrought ;  and  from  the  testimony  of  the  holy  fathers  and  all 
ecclesiastical  writers,  it  is  incontestible,  that  certain  servants  of 
God  have  been  enabled  to  work  them,  from  time  to  time,  ever 
since  this  his  promise.     This  I  have  elsewhere  demonstrated, 
as  likewise,  that  the  fact  is  denied  by  Protestants,  not  for  want 
of  evidence,  as  to  its  truth,  but  because  this  is  necessary  for  the 
defence  of  their  system.f     Still  it  is  false  that  the  Catholic 
church  ever  claimed  a  power  of  working  miracles  in  the  order  of 
nature,  as  her  opponents  pretend  :  all  that  we  say  is,  that  God  is 
pleased,  from  time  to  time,  to  illustrate  the  true  church  with  real 
miracles,  and  thereby  to  show,  that  she  belongs  to  him.     The 
latest  dealer  in  prophecies,  who  boasts  that  his  books  have  been 
revised  by  the  bishop  of  Lincoln,  J  by  way  of  showing  the  con- 
formity between  Antichristian  Popery  and  the  least,  that  did 
great  signs,  so  that  he  made  fire  to  come  down  from  heaven  unto 
the  earth,  in  the  sight  of  men.  Rev.  xiii.  13,  says  of  the  former, 
"  even  fire  is  pretended  to  come  down  from  heaven,  as  in  the 
case  of  St.  Anthony^s  fire."^     I  am  almost  ashamed  to  refute 
80  illiterate  a  cavil.     True  it  is,  that  the  hospital  monks  of  Su 
Anthony  were  heretofore  famous  for  curing  the  Erysipelasyvith 
^  peculiar  ointment,  on  which  account  that  disease  acquired  tllQ 

♦  Canon  of  the  Mass,  t  Part  ii.  Letter.  3UuiL 

t  Inrerpret.  of  Prophecy,  by  H.  Kett,  LL.  B.    Pref. 
f>  Kett,  vol.ii,  22. 


Letter  XLV.  281 

name  of  St,  Anthony^s  fire  ;*  but  neither  these  monks,  nor  any 
other  Catholics,  were  used  to  invoke  that  inflammation,  or  any 
other  burning  whatsoever,  from  heaven  or  elsewhere.  1  beg 
that  you  and  your  friends  will  suspend  your  opinion  of  the 
fourth  alleged  resemblance  between  Antichrist  and  the  Pope, 
that  of  persecuting  the  saints,  till  I  have  leisure  to  treat  that 
subject  in  greater  detail  than  I  can  at  present.  I  shall  take  no 
notice  at  all  of  this  writer's  chronological  calculations,  nor  of  the 
anagrams  and  chronograms  by  which  many  Protestant  ex- 
pounders have  endeavoured  to  extract  the  mysterious  number 
six  hundred  and  sixty-six  from  the  name  or  title  of  certain 
Popes,  farther  than  to  observe,  that  ingenious  Catholics  have 
extracted  the  same  number  from  the  name  Martinus  Lutheru^^ 
and  even  from  that  of  David  Chrytheus,  who  was  the  most  cele- 
brated inventor  of  those  riddles. 

Such  are  the  grounds  on  which  certain  refractory  children, 
in  modern  ages,  have  ventured  to  call  their  true  mother  a  pros- 
titute, and  the  common  father  of  Christians,  the  author  of  their 
own  conversion  from  Paganism,  The  Man  of  Sin,  and  the  very 
Antichrist.  But  they  do  not  really  believe  what  they  declare; 
their  object  being  only  to  inflame  the  ignorant  multitude.  I 
have  sufficient  reason  to  think  this,  when  I  hear  a  Luther 
threatening  to  unsay  all  that  he  had  said  against  the  Pope,  a 
Melancthon  lamenting,  that  Protestants  had  renounced  him,  a 
Beza  negotiating  to  return  to  him,  and  a  late  Warburton-lectur- 
er  lamenting,  on  his  deathbed,  that  he  could  not  do  the  same. 

I  am,  he. 


J.  M. 


*  Paquotius,  In  MolanumDe  Sacr.  Tmag 
N  2 


[    282     ] 

LETTER  XLVI. 
To  the  Rev.  ROBERT  CLAYTOJ^,  M.  A 

OY  THE  POPE'S  SUPREMACY. 

Rev.  Sir, 

This  acknowledges  the  honour  of  three  different  letters  from 
you,  which  I  have  not,  till  now,  been  able  to  notice.  The  ob- 
jections, contained  in  the  two  former,  are  either  answered,  or  will, 
with  the  help  of  God,  be  answered  by  me.  The  chief  purport 
of  your  last,  is  to  assure  me,  that  the  absurd  and  impious  tenet, 
of  the  Pope  being  Antichrist,  never  was  a  part  of  your  faith/ 
nor  even  your  opinion  ;  but  that  having  read  over  Dr»  Barrow's 
Treatise  of  the  Pope^s  Supremacy,  as  well  as  what  bishop  Por- 
teus  has  published  upon  it,  you  cannot  but  be  of  archbishop 
Tillotson's  mind,  who  published  the  above  named  treatise, 
namely,  that  "  The  Pope's  Supremacy  is  not  only  an  indefensi- 
ble, but  also  an  impudent  cause ;  that  there  is  not  one  tolerable 
argument  for  it,  and  that  there  are  a  thousand  invincible  rea- 
sons against  it."*  Your  liberality.  Rev.  sir,  on  the  former 
point,  justifies  the  idea  I  had  formed  of  you :  with  respect  to 
the  second,  whether  the  Pope's  claim  of  Supremacy,  or  Tillot^ 
son's  assertion  concerning  it,  is  impudent,  I  shall  leave  you  to 
determine,  when  you  shall  have  perused  the  present  letter.  But, 
as  this,  like  other  subjects  of  our  controversy,  has  been  enve- 
loped in  a  cloud  of  misrepresentation,  I  must  begin  with  dissi- 
pating this  cloud,  and  with  clearly  stating  what  the  faith  of  the 
Catholic  church  is  concerning  the  matter  in  question. 

It  is  not,  then,  the  faith  of  this  church,  that  the  Pope  has  any 
civil  or  temporal  supremacy,  by  virtue  of  which  he  can  depos« 
princes,  or  give  or  take  away  the  property  of  other  persons, 
out  of  his  own  domain  :  for  even  the  incarnate  Son  of  God, 
from  whom  he  derives  the  supremacy,  which  he  possesses,  did 
not  claim,  here  upon  earth,  any  right  of  the  above-mentioned 
kind  :  on  the  contrary,  he  positively  declared,  that  his  kingdom 
is  not  of  this  world  !  Hence,  the  Catholics  of  both  our  Isfimds, 
have,  without  impeachment  even  from  Rome,  denied,  upon 
oath,  that  "  the  Pope  has  any  civil  jurisdiction,  power,  superi- 

♦  TilloUon'a  Freface  to  Barrow's  Treatise, 


Letter  XLVL  283 

ority,    or   pre-eminence,    directly   or   indirectly,   within    this 
realm."*     But,  as   it  is   undeniable,   that  different  Popes,  la 
former  ages,  have  pronounced  sentence  of  deposition  against 
certain  contemporary  princes,  and,  as  great  numbers  of  llieolo- 
gians  have  held  (though  not  as  a  matter  of  faith)  iliat  they  had 
a  right  to  do  so,  it  seenis  proper,  by  way  of  mitigating  the  odi- 
um which  Dr.  Porteus  and  other  Protestants  raise  against  them, 
on  this  head,  to  state  the  grounds,  on  which  the  pontiffs  acted 
and  the  divines  reasoned  in  tiiis  business.     Heretofore,   the 
kingdoms,    principalities,    and   states,    composing    the    Lathi 
church,  when  they  were  all  of  the  same  religion,  formed,  as  it 
were,  one  Christian  republic,  of  which  the  Pope  was  the  ac- 
credited head.     Now,  as  mankind  have  been  sensible  at  all 
times,  that  the  duty  of  civil  allegiance  and  submission  cannot 
extend  beyond  a  certain  point,  and  that  they  ought  not  to  sur- 
render their  property,  lives  and  morality,  to  be  sported  with  by 
a  Nero  or  a  Heliogabalus ;  instead  of  deciding  the  nice  point 
for  themselves,  when  resistance  becomes  lawful,  they  thought  it 
right  to  be  guided  by  their  chief  pastor.     The  kings  and  prin- 
ces themselves  acknowledged  this  right  in  the  Pope,  and  fre- 
quently applied  to  him  to  make  use  of  his  indirect,  temporal 
power,  as  appears  in  numberless  instances. f     In  latter  ages, 
however,  since  Christendom  has  been  disturbed  by  a  variety  of 
religions,  this  power  of  the  pontiff  has  been  generally  with- 
drawn :  princes  make  war  upon  each  other,  at  their  pleasure, 
and  subjects  rebel  against  their  princes,  as  their  passions  dic- 
tate,! to  the  great  deti-iment  of  both  parties,  as  may  be  gather- 

*  31.  Geo.  III.  c.  32. 

t  See  in  Mat.  Paris,  A.  D.  1195,  the  appeal  of  our  king  Richard  I,  to  Pope  Ce- 
Icstin  III,  against  the  duke  of  Austria  for  having  detained  him  prisoner  at  TrivaJiis, 
and  the  Pope's  sentence  of  excommunication  against  that  duke  for  refusing  to  do 
him  justice. 

X  In  every  country,  in  which  Protestantism  -was  preached,  sedition  and  rebellion, 
with  the  total  or  partial  deposition  of  the  lawful  sovereign,  ensued,  not  without  the 
active  concurrence  of  the  preachers  themselves.  Luther  formed  a  league  of  prin- 
ces and  states  in  Germany  against  the  emperor,  which  desolated  the  empire  for 
more  than  a  century.  His  disciples,  Muncer  and  Stork,  taking  advantage  of  the 
pretended  evangelical  Ubcrty,  which  he  taught,  at  the  head  of  40,000  Anabaptists, 
claimed  the  empire  and  possession  of  the  world,  in  quality  of  the  meek  orus,  and 
enforced  their  dem^ind  with  fire  and  sword,  dispossessing  princes  and  lawful  own- 
ers, &c.  Zuinglius  Ughted  up  a  simUar  flame  throughout  Switzerland,  at  Geneva, 
&c  and  died  fighting,  sword  in  hand,  for  the  ReforraaUon,  which  he  prearfied. 
The  United  States  embraced  Protestantism  and  renounced  their  sovereign,  Plnhp, 
•at  the  same  time.  The  Calvinists  of  Franco,  in  conformity  with  the  doctrine  of 
their  master,  namely,  that  "  princes  deprive  themselves  of  their  power,  when  they 
r^ist  God,  and  that  it  is  better  tD  spit  in  their  faces  than  obey  tliem,"  Dan.  vi.  22, 
AS  soon  as  they  found  'themselves  strong  enough,  rose  in  arms  a»unst  their  sove- 
reigng,  and  dispossessed  them  of  half  their  dominion;s.  Knox,  Goodman,  Buchan- 
an, and  the  other  preachers  of  Presbytorianism  in  Scotland,  havmg  Uiught  the  peo- 


284  Letter  XLVL 

ed  from  what  sir  Edward  Sandys,  an  early  and  zealous  Pro- 
testant writes.  "  The  Pope  was  tlie  common  Father,  adviser, 
and  conductor  of  Christians,  to  reconcile  their  enmities,  and  de- 
cide their  differences."*  1  have  to  observe,  secondly,  that  the 
question  here  is  not  about  the  personal  qualities,  or  conduct  of 
any  particular  Pope,  or  of  the  Popes  in  general ;  at  the  same 
time,  it  is  proper  to  state,  that  in  a  list  of  two  hundred  and 
fifty-three  Popes,  who  have  successively  filled  the  chair  of  St. 
Peter,  only  a  small  comparative  number  of  them,  have  dis- 
graced it,  while  a  great  proportion  of  them  have  done  honour 
to  it,  by  their  virtues  and  conduct.  On  this  head,  I  must  again 
quote  Addison,  who  says ;  "  the  Pope  is  generally  a  man  of 
learning  and  virtue,  mature  in  years  and  experience,  who  has 
seldom  any  vanity  or  pleasure  to  gratify  at  his  people's  ex- 
pense, and  is  neither  encumbered  with  wife  and  children,  or 
mistresses."! 

In  the  third  place,  I  must  remind  you  and  my  other  friends, 
that  I  have  nothing  here  to  do  with  the  doctrine  of  the  Pope^s 
individual  infallibility,  (when  pronouncing  Ex  Cathedra,  as  the 
term  is,  he  addresses  the  whole  church,  and  delivers  the  faith  of 
it  upon  some  contested  article,)J  nor  would  you,  in  case  you 
were  to  become  a  Catholic,  be  required  to  believe  in  any  doc- 
trines, except  such  as  are  held  by  the  whole  Catholic  church, 
with  the  Pope  at  its  head.     But,  without  entering  into  this  or 


pie,  that  "  princes  may  be  deposed  by  their  subjects,  if  they  be  tyrants  against  God 
and  his  truth :"  and  that  "  It  is  blasphemy  to  say  that  kings  are  to  be  obeyed,  good 
or  bad,"  disposed  them  for  the  perpetration  of  those  riots  and  violences,  including 
the  murder  of  Cardinal  Beaton,  and  the  deposition  and  captivity  of  their  lawful 
sovereign,  by  which  Protestantism  was  established  in  that  country.  With  respect 
to  England,  no  sooner  was  the  son  of  Henry  dead,  than  a  Protestant  usurper,  lady 
Jane,  was  set  up,  in  prejudice  of  his  daughters,  Mary  and  Elizabeth,  and  supported 
by  Cranmer,  Ridley,  Latimer,  Sandys,  Poynet,  and  every  Reformer  of  any  note, 
because  she  was  a  Protestant.  Finally,  it  was  upon  the  principles  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, especially  that  of  each  man's  explaining  the  Scripture  for  himself,  and  a  ha- 
tred of  Popery,  that  the  Grand  aebellion  was  begun  and  carried  on,  till  the  king 
was  beheaded  and  the  constitutioft  destroyed.  Has  then  the  cause  of  humanity,  or 
that  of  peace  and  order,  been  beneHtted  by  the  change  in  question? 

*  Survey  of  Europe,  p.  202.  \ 

•t  Remarks  on  Italy,  p.  112. 

X  The  following  is  a  specimen  of  Burrow's  and  Tillotson's  chicanery  m  their 
Treatise  of  the  Supremacy.  Bellarmin,  in  working  up  an  argument  on  the  Pope's 
infallibility,  says,  hypothetically  by  way  of  proving  the  falsehood  of  his  opponent's 
doctrine,  ^at  "  this  doctrine  would  oblige  the  church  to  believe  rices  to  be  good, 
and  virtues  to  be  bad,  in  case  the  Pope  were  to  err  in  teaching  this."  Bell.  D^lom. 
Pont.  1.  iv.  c.  5.  Hence  these  writers  take  occasion  to  affirm,  that  Bellarmin  posi- 
tively teaches,  that  "  if  the  Pope  should  err,  by  enjoining  vices,  or  forbidding  vir- 
tues, the  church  should  be  bound  to  believe  vices  to  be  good  and  virtues  evil!"  p. 
203.  This  shameful  misrepresentation  has  been  taken  up  by  most  subsequent  Pro^ 
testant  controvertists. 


Letter  XLVI.  185 

any  other  scholastic  question,  I  shall  content  myself  with  ob- 
serving, that  it  is  impossible  for  any  man  of  candour  and  learn- 
ing, not  to  concur  with  a  celebrated  Protestant  author,  namely, 
Causabon,  who  writes  thus :  "  No  one,  who  is  the  least  versed 
in  ecclesiastical  history,  can  doubt,  that  God  made  use  of  the 
holy  See,  during  many  ages,  to  preserve  the  doctrines  of 
faith!"* 

At  length  we  arrive  at  the  question  itself,  which  is,  whether 
the  bishop  of  Rome,  who,  by  pro-eminence,  is  called  Pajya 
(Pope,  or  father  of  the  faithful)  is  or  is  not  entitled  to  a  supe- 
rior rank  and  jurisdiction,  above  other  bishops  of  the  Christian 
church,  so  as  to  be  its  spiritual  head  here  upon  earth,  and  so 
that  his  See  is  the  centre  of  Catholic  unity  ^  All  Catholics  ne- 
cessarily hold  the  affirmative  of  this  question,  while  the  above- 
mentioned  tergiversating  primate  denies,  that  there  is  a  tolera- 
ble argument  in  its  favour.f  Let  us  begin  with  consulting  the 
New  Testament,  in  order  to  see,  whether  or  no  the  first  Pope  or 
bishop  of  Rome,  St.  Peter,  was  any  way  superior  to  the  other 
apostles.  St.  Matthew,  in  numbering  up  the  apostles,  expressly 
says  of  him,  THE  FIRST,  Simon,  who  is  called  Peter,  Mat. 
X.  2.  In  like  manner,  the  other  EvangeHsts,  while  they  class 
the  other  apostles  differently,  still  give  the  first  place  to  Peter.  J 
In  fact,  as  Bossuet  observes,^  "  St.  Peter  was  the  first  to  con- 
fess his  faith  in  Christ  ;1|  the  first  to  whom  Christ  appeared, 
after  his  resurrection  ;ir  the  first  to  preach  the  belief  of  this  to 
the  people  ;**  the  first  to  convert  the  Jews;f  f  and  the  first  to 
receive  the  Gentiles."Jt  Again  I  would  ask,  is  there  no  dis- 
tinction implied,  in  St.  Peter's  being  called  upon  by  Christ  to 
declare  three  several  times,  that  he  loved  him,  and  even  that  he 
loved  him  more  than  his  fellow  apostles,  and  in  his  being  each 
time  charged  to  feed  Chrisfs  lambs,  and,  at  length,  to  feed  his 
9heep  also,  whom  the  lambs  are  used  to  follow  ?§<^  What  else 
is  here  signified,  but  that  this  apostle  was  to  act  the  part  of  a 
shepherd,  not  only  with  respect  to  the  flock  hi  general,  but  also 

*  Exercit  xv.  ad  Anna!.  Baron. 

t  Tillotson's  father  was  an  Anabaptist,  and  he  himself  was  professedly  a  Puritan 
preacher,  till  the  Restoration,  so  that  there  is  reason  to  doubt  whether  he  ever  re- 
ceived either  Episcopal  Ordination  or  Baptism.  His  successor,  Seeker,  was  also 
a  Dissenter,  and  his  baptism  has  been  called  in  question.  The  former,  with  bishop 
Butnet,  was  called  upon  to  attend  lord  Kusscl  at  his  execution,  when  they  abso- 
lutely insisted,  as  a  point  necessary  for  salvation,  on  his  disclaiming  the  lawfulness 
of  resistance  in  any  case  whatever.  Presently  after,  the  revolution  happening,  they 
themselves  declared  for  lord  Russel's  principles. 

J  Mark  iii.  16,  Luke  vi.  14.  Acts  i.  13.  ^  Orat.  ad  Cler. 

n  Mat.  xvi.  16.  IT  Luke  xxiv.  34.  **  Act«.  ii.  14. 

a  Ver.  37.  XI  Ibid.  x.  47.  ^  Johnxxv  1&. 


286  Letter  XLVI. 

with  respect  to  the  pastors  themselves  ?     The  same  is  plainly 
signified  by  our  Lord's  prayer  for  the  faith  of  this  apostle,  ia 
particular,  and  the  charge  that  he  subsequently  gave  him :  Simon, 
Simon,  behold  Satan  has  desired  to  have  you,   that  he  may  sift 
you,  as  wheat :  but  I  have  prayed  for  thee,  that  thy  faith  fail 
not ;  and  thou,  being  once  converted,  confirm  thy  brethren.  Luke 
xxii.  32.     Is  there  no  mysterious  meaning  in  the  circumstance, 
marked  by  the  Evangelist,  of  Christ's  entering  into  Simon's 
ship,  in  preference  to  that  of  James  and  John,  in  order  to  teach 
the  people  out  of  it,  and  in  the  subsequent  miraculous  draught; 
of  fishes,  together  with  our  Lord's  prophetic  declaration  to  Si- 
mon;  Fear  not,  from  henceforth  thou  shalt  catch  men.    Luke  v. 
3.  10.     But  the  strongest  proof  of  St.  Peter's  superior  dignity 
and  jurisdiction  consists  in  that  explicit  and  energetical  declara- 
tion, of  our  Saviour  to  him,  in  the  quarters  of  Cesarea  PhiHp- 
pi,  upon  his  making  that  glorious  confession  of  our  Lord's  di- 
vinity :   Thou  art  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God.    Our  Lord 
had  mysteriously  changed  his  name,  at  his  first  interview  with 
him,  when  Jesus  looking  upon  him,  said.  Thou  art  Simon,  the 
Son  of  Jona  ;  thou  shalt  be  called  Cephas,  which  is  interpreted 
Peter,  John  i.  42  :  and,  on  the  present  occasion,  he  explains 
the  mystery,  where  he  says,  Blessed  art  thou  Simon,  Bar- Jona: 
because  flesh  and  blood  hath  not  revealed  it  to  thee,  but  my  Fa- 
ther, who  is  in  heaven:  And  I  say  to  thee:  that  thou  art  Peter 
(a   rock,)   and   UPOJV  THIS  ROCK  I  WILL^BUILD 
MY  CHURCH,  and  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against 
it :  and  I  will  give  to  thee  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  Heaven » 
and  whatsoever  thou  shalt  bind  on  earth,  shall  be  bound  in  hea- 
ven ;  and  whatsoever  thou  shalt  loose  on  earth,  shall  be  looset 
also  in  heaven.  Mat.  xvi.  17,  18,  19.    Where  now,  I  ask,  is  the 
sincere  Christian,  and  especially  the  Christian  who  professes  to 
make  Scripture  the  sole  rule  of  his  faith,  who,  with  these  pas- 
sages of  the  inspired  text  before  his  eyes,  will  venture,   at  the 
risk  of  his  soul,  to  deny  that  any  special  dignity  or  charge  was 
conferred  upon   St.  Peter,  in   preference  to  the  other  apostles  ? 
I  trust  no  such  Christian  is  to  be  found  in  your  society.     Now, 
as  it  is  a  point  agreed  upon,  at  least  in  your  church  and  mine, 
that  bishops,   in  general,  succeed  to  the  rank  and  functions  of 
the  apostles,  so,  by  the  same  rule,  the  successor  of  St.  Peter, 
in  the  See  of  Rome,  succeeds  to  his  primacy  and  jurisdictioj. 
This  cannot  be  questioned  by  any  serious  Christian,  who  re- 
flects, that,  when  our  Saviour  gave  his  orders  ahoni  fcedtJig  his 
flock,  and  made  his  declaration  about  buildiny,  his  church,  he 
was  not  establishing  an  order  of  things  to  last  during  the  few 


Letter  XLVI.  287 

years  that  St.  Peter  had  lo  live,  but  one  that  was  to  last  as  long 
as  he  should  have  a  flock  and  a  church  on  earth,  iliat  is  to 
the  end  of  time ;  conformably  with  l)is  promise  to  the  apostles, 
and  their  successors,  in  the  concluding  words  of  St.  Matthew  : 
Behold  I  am  with  you  always,  even  to  the  end  of  the  world.  Mat. 
xxviii.  20. 

That  St.  Peter  (after  governing  for  a  time,  the  patriarchate 
of  Antioch,  the  capital  of  the  East,  and  thence  sending  bis 
disciple,  Mark,  to  establish  that  of  Africa  at  Alexandria)  final- 
ly fixed  his  own  See  at  Rome,  the  capital  of  the  world,  that  his 
successors  there  have  each  of  thejn  exercised  the  power  of  su- 
preme pastor,  and  have  been  acknowledged  as  such  by  all 
Christians,  except  by  notorious  heretics  and  schismatics,  from 
the  apostolic  age  down  to  the  present,  the  writings  of  the  fa- 
tliers,  doctors,  and  historians  of  the  church  unanimously  testify. 
St.  Paul,  having  been  converted,  and  raised  to  the  apostleship 
in  a  miraculous  manner,  thought  it  necessary  to  go  up  to  Jeru» 
salem  to  see  Peter,  where  he  abode  with  him  fifteen  days.  Galat. 
i.  18.  St.  Ignatius,  who  was  a  disciple  of  the  apostles,  and 
next  successor,  after  Evodius,  of  St.  Peter  in  the  See  of  Anti- 
och, addresses  his  most  celebrated  epistle  to  the  church,  which 
he  says,  "PRESIDES  in  the  country  of  the  Romans."* 
About  the  same  time,  dissensions  taking  place  in  the  church  of 
Corinth,  the  case  was  referred  to  the  church  of  Rome,  to  which 
the  Holy  Pope  Clement,  zvhose  name  is  written  in  the  book  of 
life,  Philip,  iv.  3,  returned  an  apostolical  answer  of  exhortation 
and  instruction. f 

In  the  second  century,  St.  Irenaeus  who  had  been  instructed  by 
St.  Polycarp,  the  disciple  of  St.  John  the  Evangelist,  referring  to 
the  tradition  of  the  apostles,  preserved  in  the  church  of  Rome,  calls 
it  **  the  greatest,  most  ancient,  and  most  universally  known,  as 
having  been  founded  by  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul ;  to  which  (he  says) 
every  church  is  bound  to  conform,  by  reason  of  its  superior 
authority."!  Tertullian,  a  priest  of  the  Roman  church,  who 
flourished  near  the  same  time,  calls  St.  Peter,  "  the  rock  of  the 
church,"  and  says,  that  "  the  church  was  built  upon  him."§ 
Speaking  of  the  bishop  of  Rome,  he  terms  him  in  different 
places,  "  the  blessed  Pope,  the  high  priest,  the  apostolic  pre- 
late, fee."  I  must  add,  that,  at  this  early  period.  Pope  Victor 
exerted  his  superior  authority,  by  threatening  the  bishops  of 
Asia  with  excommunication  for  their  irregularity  in  celebrating 

*  nfox«Or)T«<,  Epist.  Ignat.  Cotclcro.  t  Coteler. 

X  "Ad  banc  ecclesiam  conveiiire   ncccsse   est  omnem   ecclesiam."    Contra 
Haeres.  1.  iii.  c.  3.  §  Presci  ip.  1.  i.  c.  22.  De  Monosaui. 


288  Letter  XLVL 

Easter,  and  the  other  moveable  feasts,  from  which  rigorons 
measure  he  was  deterred,  chiefly  by  St.  Irenaeus.*  In  the  third 
century,  we  hear  Origenf  and  St.  Cyprian  repeatedly  affirm- 
ing, that  the  church  was  "  founded  on  Peter,"  that  he  "  fixed 
his  chair  at  Rome,"  that  this  is  "  the  mother  church,"  and 
"  the  root  of  Catholicity." J  The  latter  expresses  great  indig- 
nation that  certain  African  schismatics  should  dare  to  approach 
"  the  See  of  Peter,  the  head  church  and  source  of  ecclesiastical 
unity."§  It  is  true,  this  father  afterwards  had  a  dispute  with 
Pope  Stephen,  about  rebaptizing  converts  from  heresy;  but  this 
proves  nothing  more  than  that  he  did  not  think  the  Pope's  aur 
thority  superior  to  general  tradition,  which,  through  mistake, 
he  supposed  to  be  on  his  side.  To  what  degree,  however,  he 
did  admit  this  authority,  appears  by  his  advising  this  same 
Pope,  to  depose  Marcian,  a  schismatical  bishop  of  Gaul,  and  to 
appoint  another  bishop  in  his  place.  |[  At  the  beginning  of  the 
fourth  century  we  have  the  learned  Greek  historian,  Eusebius, 
explaining  in  clear  terms,  the  ground  of  tlie  Roman  pontifl''s 
claim  to  superior  authority,  which  he  derives  from  St.  Peter  jIT 
we  have  also  the  great  champion  of  orthodoxy  and  the 
patriarch  of  the  second  See  in  the  world,  St.  Athanasius,  ap- 
pealing to  the  bishop  of  Rome,  which  See  he  terms  "  the  mo- 
ther and  the  head  of  all  other  churches."**  In  fact,  the  Pope 
reversed  the  sentence  of  deposition,  pronounced  by  the  saint's 
enemies,  and  restored  him  to  his  patriarchal  chair.f  f  Soon 
after  this,  the  council  of  Sardica  confirmed  the  bishop  of  Rome, 
in  his  right  of  receiving  appeals  from  all  the  churches  in  the 
world. JJ  Even  the  Pagan  historian,  Ammianus,  about  the 
same  time,  bears  testimony  to  the  superior  authority  of  the  Ro- 
ipan  Pontifi'.<§§  In  the  same  century,  St.  Basil,  St.  Hilary, 
St.  Epiphanius,  St.  Ambrose,  and  other  fathers  and  doctors, 
teach  the  same  thing.  Let  it  suffice  to  say,  that  the  first  name^ 
of  these  scruples  not  to  advise,  that  the  Pope  should  send  visit- 
ers to  the  eastern  churches,  to  correct  the  disorders,  which  the 
Arians  had  caused  in  them,|l||  and  that  the  last  mentioned  re- 
presents communion  with  the  bishop  of  Rome,  as  communion 
with  the  Catholic  church. HIT  I  must  add,  that  the  great  St. 
Chrysostom,  having  been,  soon  after,  unjustly  deposed  from  his 
seat  in  the  Eastern  Metropolis,  was  restored  to  it  by  the  au- 

0 

*  Euseb.  Hist  Eccles.  1.  v.  c.  24.  t  Horn.  5  iuExod.  Horn.  17  in  Luc 

t  Ep.  ad  Cornel.    Ep.  ad  Anton,    De  Unit  &c        §  Ep.  ad  Cornel.  55.  ■ 
II  Ep.  29.  11  Euseb.  Chroo.  An.  44.  *♦  Epist  &d  Marc. 

tt  SocraL  Hist.  1.  il  c,  2.  Zozom.  tt  Can.  3. 

^  Bcrum  Geat.  Lxv.  U]|  Epist  5?.  5I1I  Orat.  in  Obit  SatjiA 


Letter  XLVI.  J90 

thority  of  Pope  Innocent ;  that  Pope  Leo  termed  his  church 
"  the  head  of  the  world,  because  its  spiritual  power,  as  he  al- 
leged, extended  farther  than  the  temporal  power  of  Rome  had 
ever  extended."^  Finally,  the  learned  St.  Jerom,  feeing  dis- 
tracted with  the  disputes  among  three  parties,  which  divided 
the  church  of  Antioch,  to  which  church  he  was  then  subject, 
wrote  for  directions,  on  this  head,  to  Pope  Damasus,  as  follows: 
**  I,  who  am  but  a  sheep,  apply  to  my  shepherd  for  succour.  I 
am  united  with  your  hoHness,  that  is  to  say,  with  the  chair  of 
Peter,  in  communion.  I  know  that  the  cimrch  is  built  upon 
that  rock.  He  who  eats  the  Paschal  Lamb  out  of  that  house, 
is  profane.  Whoever  is  not  in  Noah's  Ark  will  perish  by  the 
deluge.  I  know  nothing  of  Vitalis,  I  reject  Melitius,  I  am  ig- 
norant of  Paulinus  :  he  who  does  not  gather  with  thee,  scat- 
ters," &ic.f  It  were  useless,  after  this,  to  cite  the  numerous 
testimonies  to  the  Pope's  supremacy,  which  St.  Augustln,  and 
all  the  fathers,  doctors,  and  church  historians,  and  all  the  ge- 
neral councils  bear,  down  to  the  present  time.  However,  as 
the  authority  of  our  apostle,  Pope  Gregory  the  Great,  is 
claimed  by  most  Protestant  divines  on  their  side,  and  is  alluded 
to  by  Bp.  PorteuSjJ  merely  for  having  censured  the  pride  of 
John,  patriarch  of  C.  P.  in  assuming  to  himself  the  title  of 
(Echumenical  or  universal  bishop;  it  is  proper  to  show,  that  this 
Pope,  like  all  the  others  who  went  before  him,  and  came  after 
bim,  did  claim  and  exercise  the  power  of  supreme  pastor, 
tliroughout  the  church.  Speaking  of  this  very  attempt  of  John, 
he  says,  "  The  care  of  the  whole  church  was  committed  to 
Peter,  and  yet  he  is  not  called  the  universal  apostle. "§  With 
respect  to  the  See  of  C.  P.  he  says,  "  Who  doubts  but  it  is 
subject  to  the  apostolic  See;"  and  again,  "  When  bishops  com- 
mit a  fault,  I  know  not  what  bishop  is  not  subject  to  it,"  (ths 
See  of  Rome.)\\  As  no  Pope  was  ever  more  vigilant,  in  dis- 
charging the  duties  of  his  exalted  station,  than  St.  Gregory,  so 
none  of  them,  perhaps,  exercised  more  numerous  or  widely  ex- 
tended acts  of  the  supremacy,  than  he  did.  It  is  sufficient  to 
cite  here  his  directions  to  St.  Austin  of  Canterbury,  whom  Iw 
had  sent  into  this  island,  for  the  conversion  of  our  Saxon  ai>- 
cestors,  and  who  had  consulted  him,  by  letter,  how  he  was  to 
act  with  respect  to  the  French  bishops,  and  the  bishops  of  this 

♦  Sertn.  de  Nat  Apos.  This  sentiment,  another  father  of  the  church,  in  the  fbK 
lowing  century,  St.  Prosper,  expressed  in  these  lines :  "  Sedes  Roma  Petri,  qose 
pastoralis  honoris  ;  Facta  caput  mundo,  quidquid  non  possidct  armis  ;  fteligionc 
totiet"  t  Ep  ad  Damas. 

4  P.  78.  ^  Ep.  Greg.  L  t.  20.  U  L.  ix.  59. 

0  2 


590  Letter  XLVL 

island,  namely,  the  British  prelates  in  Wales,  and  the  Pict'ish 
and  Scotch  in  the  northern  parts.  To  this  question  Pope  Gre- 
gory returns  an  answer  in  the  following  words  :  "  We  give  you 
no  jurisdiction  over  the  bishops  of  Gaul,  because,  from  ancient 
times,  my  predecessors  have  conferred  the  Pallium  (the  ensign 
of  legatine  authority)  on  the  bishop  of  Aries,  whom  we  ought 
not  to  deprive  of  the  authority  he  has  received.  But  we  com- 
mit all  the  bishops  of  Britain  to  your  care,  that  the  ignorant 
among  them  may  be  instructed,  the  weak  strengthened,  and  the 
perverse  corrected  by  your  authority."*  After  this  is  it  pos- 
sible to  believe  that  Bp.  Porteus  and  his  fellow  writers  ever 
read  Venerable  Bede's  History  of  the  English  nation  ?  But  if 
they  could  even  succeed  in  proving  that  Christ  had  not  built 
his  church  upon  St.  Peter  and  his  successors,  and  had  not  given 
them  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven ;  it  would  still  remain 
for  them  to  prove,  that  he  had  founded  any  part  of  it  on  Henry 
VIII,  Edward  VI,  and  their  successors,  or  that  he  had  given  the 
mystical  keys  to  Elizabeth  and  her  successors.  I  have  shown, 
in  a  former  letter,  that  these  sovereigns  exercised  a  more  despotic 
power  over  all  the  ecclesiastical  and  spiritual  affairs  of  this 
realm,  than  any  Pope  ever  did,  even  in  the  city  of  Rome,  and 
that  the  changes  in  Religion,  which  took  place  in  their  reigns, 
were  effected  by  them  and  their  agents,  not  by  the  bishops  or  any 
clergy  whatever;  and  yet  no  one  will  pretend  to  show  from  Scrip- 
ture, tradition,  or  reason,  that  these  princes  had  received  any 
greater  power  from  Christ  over  the  doctrine  and  discipline  of 
his  church,  than  he  conferred  upon  Tiberius,  Pilate,  or  Herod, 
or  than  he  has  given  at  the  present  day,  to  the  great  Turk 
or  the  Lama  of  Thibet,  in  their  respective  dominions. 

Before  I  close  this  letter  I  think  it  right  to  state  the  senti- 
ments of  a  iew  eminent  Protestants  respecting  the  Pope's  su- 
premacy. I  have  already  mentioned,  that  Luther  acknowledged 
it,  and  submissively  bowed  to  it,  during  the  three  first  years  of 
his  dogmatizing  about  justification  ;  and  till  his  doctrine  was 
condemned  at  Rome.  In  like  manner,  our  Henry  VIII.  assert- 
ed it,  and  wrote  a  book  in  defence  of  it,  in  reward  of  which  the 
Pope  conferred  upon  him  and  his  successors  the  new  title  of 
Defender  of  the  Faith.  Such  was  his  doctrine ;  till,  becoming 
amorous  of  his  queen's  maid  of  honour,  Ann  Bullen,  and  finduig 
the  Pope  conscientiously  inflexible  in  refusing  to  grant  him  a 
divorce  from  the  former,  and  to  sanction  an  adulterous  con- 
nexion with  the  latter,  he  set  himself  up,  as  supreme  head  of  the 

*  Hist  Bed.  L  i.  c  27.    Resp.  9.    SpelnL  Concil  p.  98. 


Letter  XLVL  291 

church  of  England,  and  maintained  his  claim  by  the  argumenti 
of  halters,  knives,  and  axes.     James  I,  in  his  first  speech  in  par- 
liament,  termed  Rome  "  the  mother  church,"  and  in  his  writ- 
ings allowed  the  Pope  to  be  "  The  patriarch  of  the  West." 
The  late  archbishop  Wake,  after  all  his  bitter  writings  against 
the  Pope  and  the  CathoHc  church,  coming  to  discuss  the  terms 
of  a  proposed  union  between  this  church  and  that  of  England, 
expressed  himself  willing  to  allow  a  certain  superiority  to  the 
Roman  pontifi'.*     Bishop  Bramhall  had  expressed  the  same 
sentiment,f  sensible  as  he  was,  that  no  peace  or  order  could 
subsist  in  the  Christian  church,  any  more  than  in  a  political 
state,  withotit  a  supreme  authority.    Of  the  truth  of  this  maxim, 
two  others,  among  the  greatest  men  whom  Protestantism  has  to 
boast  of,  the  Lutheran  Melancthon,  and  the  Calvinist  Hugo 
Grotius,  were  deeply  persuaded.     The  former  had  written  to 
prove  the  Pope  to  be  Antichrist ;  but  seeing  the  animosities, 
the  divisions,  the  errors,  and  the  impieties  of  the  pretended  re- 
formers, with  whom  he  was  connected,  and  the  utter  impossi- 
bility of  putting  a  stop  to  these  evils,  without  returning  to  the 
ancient  system,  he  wrote  thus  to  Francis  I,  of  France  :  "  We 
acknowledge,  in  the  first  place,  that  ecclesiastical  government 
is  a  thing  holy  and  salutary  :  namely,  that  there  should  be  cer- 
tain bishops  to  govern  the  pastors  of  several  churches,  and  tha# 
THE  ROMAN  PONTIFF  should  be  above  all  the  bishops. 
For  the  church  stands  in  need  of  governors,  to  examine  and 
ordain  those  who  are  called  to  the  ministry,  and  to  watch  over 
their  doctrine ;  so  that,  if  there  were  no  bishops,  they  ought  to 
be  created. "J     The  latter  great  man,  Grotius,  was   learned, 
wise,  and  always  consistent.     In  proof  of  this  he  wrote  as  fol- 
lows, to  the  minister,  Rivet :  "  All  who  are  acquainted  with 
Grotius,  know  how  earnestly  he  has  wished  to  see  Christians 
united  together  in  one  body.   This  he  once  thouglit  miglit  have 
been  accomplished  by  a  union  among  Protestants,  but  after- 
wards, he  saw  that  this  is  impossible.    Because,  not  to  mention 
the  aversion  of  Calvinists  to  every  sort  of  union,  Protestants 
are  not  bound  by  any  ecclesiastical  government,  so  that  they 
can  neither  be  united  at  present,  nor  prevented  from  splitting 
into  fresh  divisions.    Therefore  Grotius  now  is  fully  convinced, 

*  •  Suo  Gaudeat  qualicunque  Primatu."  Se«  Maclain's  Third  Appendix  to 
Mosheim's  Eccl.  Hist,  vol.  v. 

t  Answer  to  Militiere. 

X  D'Argentre,  Collect.  Jud.  t.  i.  p.  2.— Berca.stcl  and  Frlloi'  relate,  that  >folano- 
thon's  mother,  who  was  a  Catholic,  having  cousuUed  him  about  her  religioni  ha 
persuaded  ber  to  Qontioue  in  it. 


202  Letter  XLVIL 

as  many  others  are  also,  that  Protestants  never  can  be  united 
among  themselves,  unless  they  join  those  who  adhere  to  the 
Roman  See;  without  which  there  never  can  be  any  general 
church  government.  Hence  he  wishes  that  the  revolt  and  the 
causes  of  it  may  be  removed,  among  which  causes,  the  primacy 
of  the  bishop  of  Rome  was  not  one,  as  Melancthon  confessed 
who  also  thought  that  primacy  necessary  to  restore  union."* 

I  am^  &z^. 

J.M. 


LETTER  XLVIL 

To  JAMES  BROWJY,  Jun.  Esq. 

OJV  THE  LAJ^GU^GE  OF  THE  LITURGY  Am)  OK  REJWIJiG 
THE  HOLY  SCRIPTURES. 

Dear  Sir, 

I  AGREE  with  your  worthy  father,  that  the  departure  of  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Clayton,  to  a  foreign  country,  is  a  loss  to  your  Sa- 
lopian Society  in  more  respects  than  one ;  and  as  it  is  his  wish 
that  1  should  address  the  few  remaining  letters  I  have  to  write, 
m  answer  to  bishop  Porteus's  book,  to  you,  sir,  who,  it  seems, 
agree  with  him  in  the  main,  but  not  altogether,  on  religious 
subjects,  I  shall  do  so,  for  your  own  satisfaction  and  that  of 
your  friends,  who  are  still  pleased  to  hear  me  upon  them.  In- 
deed the  remaining  controversies  between  that  prelate  and  my- 
self are  of  light  moment,  compared  with  those  I  have  been 
treating  of,  as  they  consist  chiefly  of  disciplinary  matters,  sub- 
ject to  the  control  of  the  church,  or  of  particular  facts  misre- 
presented by  his  lordship. 

The  first  of  these  points  of  changeable  discipline,  which  the 
bishop  mentions,  or  rather  declaims  upon  throughout  a  whole 
chapter,  is  the  use  of  the  Latin  tongue  in  the  public  liturgy  of 
the  Latin  church.  It  is  natural  enough  that  the  church  of 
England,  which  is  of  modern  date,  and  confined  to  its  own  do- 
main, should  adopt  its  own  language,  in  its  public  worship ) 

♦  Apol  ad  RIvaU 


Letter  XLVII.  293 

and,  for  a  similar  reason,  it  is  proper  that  the  great  Western  or 
Latin  church,  which  was  established  by  the  apostles,  when  the 
Latin  tongue  was  the  vulgar  tongue  of  Europe,  and  which  still 
is  the  common  language  of  educated  persons  in  every  part  of 
it,  should  retain  this  language  in  her  public  service.  When  the 
bishop  complains  of  "  our  worship  being  performed  in  an  un- 
known tongue,^^*  and  of  our  "  wicked  and  cruel  cunning  in 
keeping  people  in  darkness,''^\  by  this  means,  under  pretext  that 
*'  they  reverence  what  they  do  not  understand, "J  he  must  be 
conscious  of  the  irreligious  calumnies  he  is  uttering :  knowing, 
as  he  does,  that  Latin  is,  perhaps,  still  the  most  general  lan- 
guage of  Christianity,^  and  that,  where  it  is  not  commonly 
understood,  it  is  not  the  church  which  has  introduced  a  foreign 
language  among  the  people,  but  it  is  the  people  who  have  /or- 
gotten  their  ancient  language.  So  far  removed  is  the  Catholic 
church  from  "  the  wicked  and  cruel  cunning  of  keeping  people 
in  ignorance,"  by  retaining  her  original  apostolical  languages, 
the  Latin  and  the  Greek ;  that  she  strictly  commands  her  pas- 
tors every  where,  "  to  inculcate  the  word  of  God,  and  the  les- 
sons of  salvation,  to  the  people,  in  their  vulgar  tongue,  every 
Sunday  and  festival  throughout  the  year,"||  and  "  to  explain 
to  them  the  nature  and  meaning  of  her  divine  worship  as  fre- 
quently as  possible. "If  In  like  manner,  we  are  so  far  from 
imagining  that  the  less  our  people  understand  of  our  liturgy, 
the  more  they  reverence  it,  that  we  are  quite  sure  of  precisely 
the  contrary;  particularly  with  respect  to  our  principal  liturgy, 
the  adorable  sacrifice  of  the  mass.  True  it  is,  that  a  part  of 
this  is  performed  by  the  priest  in  silence,  because,  being  a  sa- 
cred action,  as  well  as  a  form  of  words,  some  of  the  prayers 
which  the  priest  says,  would  not  be  proper  or  rational  in  the 
mouths  of  the  people.  Thus,  the  high  priest  of  old  went  alone 
into  the  tabernacle,  to  make  the  atonement  ;**  and  thus  Za- 
chary  offered  incense  in  the  temple  by  himself;  while  the  mul- 
titude prayed  without.f  f  ^^^  this  is  no  detriment  to  the  faith- 
ful, as  they  have  translations  of  the  liturgy,  and  other  books  in 
their  hands,  by  means  of  which,  or  of  their  own  devotion,  they 
can  join  with  the  priest  in  every  part  of  the  solemn  worship ;  as 


♦  P.  76.  t  P.  63.  }  P.  65. 

^  The  Latin  language  is  vernacular  in  Hungary  and  the  neighbouring  countries : 
it  is  taught  in  aU  the  Catholic  settlements  of  the  universe,  and  it  approaches  so 
near  to  the  Italian,  Spanish,  and  French,  as  to  be  understood,  in  a  general  kind  of 
ivay,  by  those  who  use  these  languages. 

H  Concil.  Trid.  Sess.  xxiv.  c  7.  ^  Idem.  Sess.  xxi.  c  S. 

♦♦  Levit  xvi.  17.  tt  Luke  i.  10. 


294  Letter  XLTU. 

the  Jewish  people  united  with  their  priests,  in  the  sacrifices 
above-mentioned. 

But  we  are  referred  by  his  lordship  to  1  Cor.  xiv.  in  order 
'*  to  see  what  St.  Paul  would  have  judged  of  the  Romanists 
practice"  in  retaining  the  Latin  liturgy,  (which,  after  all,  he 
himself  and  St.  Peter  established  where  it  now  prevails ;)  I  an- 
$%ver,  that  there  is  not  a  word  in  that  chapter  which  mentions 
or  alludes  to  the  public  liturgy,  which  at  Corinth  was,  as  it  is 
still  performed  in  the  old  Greek ;  the  whole  of  it  regarding  an 
imprudent  and  ostentatious  use  of  the  gift  of  tongues,  in  speak- 
ing all  kinds  of  languages,  which  gift  many  of  the  faithful  pos- 
sessed, at  that  time,  in  common  with  the  apostles.  The  very 
reason,  alleged  by  St.  Paul,  for  prohibiting  extemporary  pray- 
ers and  exhortations,  which  no  one  understood,  namely,  that 
all  things  should  be  done  decently  and  according  to  order,  is  the 
principal  motive  of  the  Catholic  church,  for  retaining,  in  her 
worship,  the  original  languages  employed  by  the  apostles.  She 
is,  as  I  before  remarked,  a  universal  church,  spread  over  the 
face  of  the  globe,  and  composed  of  all  nations,  and  tribes,  and 
tongues.  Rev.  vii.  9,  and  these  tongues  constantly  changing ; 
so  that  instead  of  the  uniformity  of  worship,  as  well  as  of  faith^ 
which  is  so  necessary  for  that  decency  and  order,  there  would  be 
nothing  but  confusion,  disputes,  and  changes  in  every  part  of 
her  liturgy,  if  it  were  performed  in  so  many  different  languages, 
and  dialects;  with  the  constant  danger  of  some  alteration  or 
other  in  the  essential  forms,  which  would  vitiate  the  very  sacra- 
ment and  sacrifice.  The  advantage  of  an  ancient  language, 
for  religious  worship,  over  a  modern  one,  in  this  and  other  re- 
spects, is  acknowledged  by  the  Cambridge  professor  of  divinity, 
Dr.  Hey.  He  says,  that  such  a  one  "  is  fixed  and  venerable, 
free  from  vulgarity,  and  even  more  perspicuous."*  But  to  re- 
turn to  bishop  Porteus's  appeal  to  the  judgment  of  St.  Paul, 
concerning  "  the  Romanists  practice"  in  retaining  the  lan- 
guage with  the  substance  of  their  primitive  liturgy,  I  leaTe  yon, 
dear  sir,  and  your  friends,  to  pronoimce  upon  it,  after  I  shall 
have  stated  the  following  facts  :  1st,  that  St.  Paul  himself  wrote 
an  Epistle,  which  forms  part  of  the  liturgy  of  all  Christian 
churches,  to  these  very  Romanists,  in  the  ,  Greek  language^ 
though  they  themselves  made  use  of  the  Latin  :f  2dly,  that  the 
Jews,  after  they  had  exchanged  their  original  Hebrew  for  the 
Chaldaic  tongue,  during  the  Babylonish  captivity,  continued  to 
perform  their  liturgy  in  the  former  language,  though  the  vulr 

*  Lectures,  vol.  iv,  p.  191.  t  St  Jerom,  Epist  123. 


Letter  ^Vlt. 


m.. 


gat  did  not  understand  it,*  and  tliat  our  Saviour  Christ,  as 
Veil  as  his  apostles,  and  other  devout  friends,  attended  thib  ser- 
Vrce  in  the  temple,  and  the  synagxjgue,  without  ever  ce1lsuriil^ 
it:  -Sdly,  that  tlie  Greek  churches,  in  general,  no  less  Uian  the 
Latin  church,  retain  their  Original  pure  Greek  tongue  in  their 
liturgy,  thougil  tlie  common  people  have  forgotten  it,  and 
adopted  different  barbarous  dialects  instead  of  it:f  4thly,  ilial 
patriarch  Luther  maiVitained,  against  Carlostad,  that  the  lan- 
guage of  public  worship,  was  a  matter  of  indifference :  henc«, 
his  disciples  professed,  in  theit  Ausburg  Confession,  to  retail  the 
Latin  language  in  certain  |^arts  of  their  service :  lastly,  ijKit 
when  the  establishrtient  endeavoured,  under  Elizabelli,  and 
afterwards,  uwder  Charles  L  to  force  their  liturgy  upon  iln« 
Irish  Catholics,  it  was  not  thought  necessary  to  transiate  it  into 
Irish,  but  it  was  constantly  read  in  English,  of  which  the  na- 
tives did  not  understand  a  word:  thus  "  furnishing  the  Papist 
with  an  excellent  argument  against  thetnselves,"  as  Dr.  Heyliu 
observes,  f 

The  bishop  has  next  a  long  letter  on  what  ^e  calls,  the  pro*- 
hihition  of  the  Scriptures^  by  the  Romanists,  in  which  he  con- 
fuses and  disguises  the  subjects  he  treats  of,  to  beguile  and  in- 
flame ignorant  readers.  I  have  treated  this  matter,  at  some 
length,  in  a  former  letter,  and  therefore  shall  be  brief  in  what  I 
write  upon  it  in  this  :  but  what  I  do  Write  shall  be  explicit  and 
clear.  It  is  a  wicked  calumny,  then,  that  the  Catholic  church 
undervalues  the  Holy  Scriptures,  or  prohibits  the  use  of  them: 
on  the  contrary,  it  is  she  that  has  religiously  preserved  them, 
as  the  inspired  word  of  God,  and  his  invaluable  gift  to  man, 
during  these  eighteen  centuries :  it  is  she  alone,  that  can  and 
does  vouch  for  their  authenticity,  their  purity,  and  their  inspi^ 
ration.  But,  then,  she  knows  that  there  is  an  unwritten  word 
of  God,  called  tradition,  as  well  as  a  written  word,  the  Scrip- 
tures ;  that  the  former  is  the  evidence  for  the  authority  of  the 
latter,  and  that,  when  nations  had  been  converted,  and  churches 
formed  by  the  unwritten  word,  the  authority  of  this  was  no^vise 
abrogated  by  the  inspired  Epistles  and  Gospels,  which  th» 
apostles  and  evangelists  occasionally  sent  to  such  nations  or 
churches.  In  short,  both  these  words  together  form  the  Ca- 
tholic rule  of  faith.  On  the  other  hand,  the  church,  consisting, 
according  to  its  more  general  division,  of  two  distinct  classes, 

♦  Walton's  Polyglot  Prolfcg.  Hey,  &c. 
t  Mosheim,  by  Maclaine,  toI.  ii.  p.  575, 

X  Ward  has  succesaftUly  ridiculed  this  attempt  in  his  England's  RtforvMffUM, 
Canto  II. 


296  Leti&r  XLVtL 

the  pastors  and  their  flocks,  the  preachers  and  their  hearer$t 
each  has  its  particular  duties  in  the  point  under  consideration^ 
as  well  as  in  othei*  respects.  The  pastors  are  bound  to  study 
the  rule  of  faith  in  both  its  parts,  with  unwearied  applicati&ii, 
to  be  enabled  to  acquit  themselves  of  the^r^i  of  all  their  duties^ 
that  of  preaching  the  Gospel  to  their  people.*  Hence  St. 
Ambrose  calls  the  sacred  Scripture  the  Sacerdotal  Book^  and 
the  council  of  Cologne  orders  that  it  should  "  never  be  odt  of 
the  hands  of  ecclesiastics."  3n  fact,  the  Catholic  clergy 
ftiust,  and  do  employ  no  small  portion  of  their  time,  every  day, 
in  reading  different  portions  of  Holy  Writ.  But  no  such  obli- 
gation is  generally  incumbent  on  the  flock,  that  is,  on  the  laity; 
it  is  sufficient  for  them  to  hear  the  word  of  God  from  those 
whom  God  has  appointed  to  announce  and  to  explain  it  t& 
them,  whether  by  sermons,  or  catechisms,  or  other  good  books, 
or  in  the  tribunal  of  penance.  Thus,  it  is  not  thebounden  duty 
of  all  good  subjects  to  read  and  study  the  laws  of  their  country : 
it  is  sufficient  for  them  to  hear  and  to  submit  to  the  decisions 
of  the  judges,  and  other  legal  officers,  pronouncing  upon  them^ 
and,  by  the  same  rule,  the  latter  would  be  inexcusable  if  they 
did  not  make  the  law  and  constitution  their  constant  study,  in 
order  to  decide  right.  Still,  however,  the  Catholic  church  never 
did  prohibit  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures  to  the  laity  ;  she  only 
required,  by  way  of  preparation,  for  this  most  difficult  and  im- 
portant study,  that  they  should  have  received  so  much  edlication, 
as  would  enable  them  to  read  the  sacred  books  in  their  original 
languages,  or  in  that  ancient  and  venerable  Latin  version,  the 
fidelity  of  which  she  guarantees  to  them ;  or,  in  case  they  were 
desirous  of  reading  it  in  a  modern  tongue,  that  they  should  be 
furnished  with  some  attestation  of  their  piety  and  docility,  in 
order  to  prevent  their  turning  this  salutary  food  of  souls  into  a 
deadly  poison,  as,  it  is  universally  confessed,  so  many  thou- 
sands constantly  have  done.  At  present,  however,  the  chief 
pastors  have  every  where  relaxed  these  disciplinary  rules,  and 
vulgar  translations  of  the  whole  Scripture  are  upon  sale,  and 
open  to  every  one,  in  Italy  itself,  with  the  express  approbation 
of  the  Roman  pontiff.  In  these  islands,  we  have  an  English 
version  of  the  Bible,  in  folio,  in  quarto,  and  in  octavo  forms, 
against  which  our  opponents  have  no  other  objection  to  make» 
except  that  it  is  too  literal,!  that  is,  too  faithful.  But  Dr. 
Porteus  professes  not  to  admit  of  any  restriction  whatever  '^  on 


•  Trid.  Sesa.  v.  cap.  2.    Sess.  xxt.  cap.  4. 
^     ,♦  See  the  bishop  of  Lincola'*  Elements  of  ThcoL  vol  u.  p.  1& 


Letter  XLVH.  297 

file  reading  of  what  heaven  hath  revealed,  with  respect  to  any 
part  of  mankind."  No  doubt,  the  revealed  truths  themselves 
are  to  be  made  known  as  much  as  possible,  to  all  mankind ;  but 
it  does  not  follow  from  hence,  that  all  mankind  are  to  read  the 
Scriptures :  there  are  passages  in  them,  which,  1  am  confident, 
his  lordship  would  not  wish  his  daughters  to  peruse  ;  and  which, 
in  fact,  were  prohibited  to  the  Jews,  till  they  had  atta'med  the 
age  of  thirty.*  Again,  a&  lord  Clarendon,  Mr.  Grey,  Dr.  Hey, 
&c.  agree,  that  the  misapplication  of  Scripture  was  the  cause 
of  the  destruction  of  church  and  state,  and  of  the  murder  of  the 
king  in  the  grand  rebellion,  and  as  he  must  be  sensible,  from 
his  own  observation,  that  the  same  cause  exposed  the  nation  to 
the  same  calamities  in  the  Protestant  riots  of  1760, 1  am  conjfi- 
dent  the  bishop,  as  a  Christian,  no  less  than  as  a  British  sub- 
ject would  have  taken  the  Bible  out  of  the  hands  of  Hugh  Pe- 
ters, Oliver  Cromwell,  lord  George  Gordon,  and  their  respective 
crews,  if  this  had  been  in  his  power :  1  will  affirm  the  same, 
with  respect  to  count  Emanuel  Swedenborg,  the  founder  of  the 
modem  sect  of  Jerusalemites,  who  taught,  that  no  one  had  un- 
derstood the  Scriptures,  till  the  sense  of  them  was  revealed  to 
him;  as  also  with  respect  to  Joanna  Southcote, foundress  of  a 
Still  more  modern  sect,  and  who,  I  believe,  tormented  the  bishop 
himself  with  her  rhapsodies,  in  order  to  persuade  him,  that  she 
was  the  woman  of  Genesis,  destined  to  crush  the  serjyenfs  head, 
and  the  woman  of  the  Revelations,  clothed  with  the  sun,  and 
crowned  with  twelve  stars.  Nay,  I  greatly  deceive  myself  if  the 
prelate  would  not  be  glad  to  take  away  every  hot-brained  Dis- 
senter's Bible,  who  employs  it  in  persuading  the  people,  that 
the  church  of  England  is  a  rag  of  Popery,  and  a  spawn'of  the 
whore  of  Babylon,  In  short,  whatever  Dr.  Porte  us  may 
choose  to  say  of  an  unrestricted  perusal  and  interpretation  of  the 
Scriptures,  with  respect  to  ail  sorts  of  persons,  it  is  certain,  that 
many  of  the  wisest  and  most  learned  divines  of  his  church  have 
lamented  this,  as  one  of  her  greatest  misfortunes,  I  will  quote 
the  words  of  one  of  tliem  :  *'  Aristarchus,  of  old,  could  hardly 
find  seven  wise  men  in  all  Greece  :  but,  amongst  us,  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  find  the  same  number  of  ignorant  persons.  They  an 
all  doctors  and  divinely  inspired.  There  is  not  a  fanatic  or  j 
mountebank,  from  the  lowest  class  of  the  f/eopie,  who  does  not 
vent  his  dreams  for  the  word  of  God.  The  bottomless  pit 
fieems  to  be  opened,  and  there  come  out  of  it  locusts  with 
ftings ;  a  swarm  of  sectaries  and  heretics,  who  have  renewed 

•  St  Jerom  in  Proem  Ezecii.    St.  Greg.  Naz.  de  Mo<Jerae4  D»«p. 


208  Letter  XLFH, 

all  the  heresies  of  former  ages,  and  added  to  them  numerous 
and  monstrous  errors  of  their  own.* 

Since  the  above  was  written,  the  Bibliomania,  or  rage  for 
the  letter  of  the  Bible,  has  been  carried,  in  this  country,  to  the 
utmost  possible  length,  by  persons  of  almost  every  description, 
Christians  and  Infidels;  Trinitarians,  who  worship  God  in 
three  persons,  and  Unitarians,  who  hold  such  worship  to  be 
idolatrous ;  Peedobaptists  who  believe  they  became  Christians 
by  baptism  ;  Anabaptists,  who  plunge  such  Christians  into  the 
water,  as  mere  Pagans ;  and  Quakers,  who  ridicule  all  bap- 
tism, except  that  of  their  own  imagination  ;  Arminian  Metho- 
dists, who  believe  themselves  to  have  been  justified  without  re- 
pentance, and  Antinomian  Methodists,  who  maintain,  that  they 
shall  be  saved  without  keeping  the  laws  either  of  God  or  man  y 
Churchmen,  who.  glory  in  having  preserved  the  whole  orders 
and  part  of  the  missal  and  ritual  of  the  Catholics ;  and  the 
countless  sects  of  Dissenters,  who  join  in  condemning  these 
things  as  Antichristian  Popery :  all  these  have  forgotten,  for  a 
time,  their  characteristical  tenets,  and  united  in  enforcing  the 
reading  of  the  Bible,  as  the  only  thing  necessary  !  The  Bible 
Societies  are  content,  that  all  these  contending  religionists 
should  afSx  whatever  meaning  they  please  to  the  Bible,  pro-- 
vided  only  they  read  the  text  of  the  Bible !  Nay,  they  are 
satisfied  if  they  can  but  get  the  Hindoo  worshippers  of  Jugger- 
naut, the  Thibet  adorers  of  the  Grand  Lama,  and  *the  Taboo 
cannibals  of  the  Pacific  Ocean  to  do  the  same  thing,  vainly 
fancying,  that  this  lecture  will  reform  the  vicious,  reclaim  the 
erroneous,  and  convert  the  Pagans.  In  the  mean  time,  the  ex- 
perience of  fourteen  years  proves,  that  theft,  forgery,  robbery, 
murder,  suicide,  and  other  crimes  go  on  increasing  with  the 
most  alarming  rapidity ;  that  every  sect  clings  to  its  original 
errors,  that  not  one  Pagan,  is  converted  to  Christianity,  nor  one 
Jrish  Catholic  persuaded  to  exchange  his  faith  for  a  Bible 
Book.  When  will  these  Bible  enthusiasts:  comprehend,  what 
lesu-ncd  and  wise  Christians  of  every  age  have  known  and 
taught,  that  the  word  of  God  consists  not  in  the  letter  of  Strips 
turcy  but  in  the  meaning  of  it !  Hence  it  fiollows,  that  a  Ca- 
tholic child,  who  is  graunded  in  his  short  but  comprehensive 
First  CatechisMySo  called,  knows  more  of  the  revealed  word  of 
God,  than  a  Methodist  preacher  does,  who  has  read  the  whole 
Bible  ten  times  over.  The  sentiment  expressed  above  is  not  only 
tb»»  of  St.  Jeromf  and  other  Cath.oUQ  writers,  but  also  of  the 

♦  Walton'a  Polyglot  Projegonu  If  Cap.  1  a4  GaJat. 


Letter  XLVIIL  ^gg 

learned  Protestant  bishop,  wliom  I  luve  already  quoted.  He 
says,  "  The  word  of  God  does  not  consist  in  mere  letters,  but 
in  the  sense  of  it,  which  no  one  can  better  interpret  than  the 
true  church,  to  which  Christ  committed  this  sacred  deposite."* 

1  am,  &ic. 


LETTER  XLVIIL 
To  JAMES  BROWJV,  Jun,  Esq^ 

OK    VARIOUS  MISREPRESEXTJlTIDjra. 

Dear  Sir, 
The  learned  prelate,  who  is  celebrated  for  having  concen- 
trated the  five  sermons  of  his  patron,  archbishop  Seeker,  and 
the  more  diftusive  declamation    of  primate  Tillotson   against. 
Popery;  havlag  gone  tlirough  his  regular  charges  on  this  to- 
pic, tries,  in  the  endy  to  overwhelm  the  Catholic  cause,  with  aa 
accumulation  of  petty,  or,  at  leasts  secondary  objections,  in  a 
chapter  which  he- entitles:  various  corruptions  and  superstitions 
of  the  church  of  Rome.     The  first  of  these  is,  that  Catholics 
"  equal  the  apocryphal  with  the  canonical  books"  of  Scrip- 
ture :f  to  which- 1  answer^  that  the  same  authority,  namely,  the 
authority  of  the  Catholic  church,  in  the  fifth  century,  which- 
decided  oa  the  canonical  character  of  tlie  Epistle  to  the  He- 
brews, the  Revelations,  and  five  other  books  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, on  the  character  of  which  till' that  time,  the  Fathers  and 
ecclesiastical  writers  were  not  agreed,  decided  also  on.  the  can- 
nonicity  of  the  Books  of  Toby,  Judith,  and  five  other  books  of 
the  Old  Testament,  being  those  which  the  prelate  alludes  to  as 
apocryphal.     If  the  church  of  the  fifth  century  deserves  to  be 
heard  in  one  part  of  her  testimony,  she  evidently  deserves  to 
be  heard  in  the  other  part. — His  second  objection  is,  that  '*  The 
Romish  church,"  as  he  calls  the  Catholie  churchy  lias  made  '•  a 
modern  addition  oC  five  new  sacraments,  to  the  two  appointed 
by  Christ.;  making^  also  the  priest's  intention  necessary  to  the 

♦  WaKon's  ProJcg.  ft^-lt^ 


300  Letter  XLVnt, 

benefit  of  them."  I  have,  in  tlie  course  of  these  letters,  vmdi- 
cated  the  divine  institution  of  tliese  five  sacraments,  and  have 
shown,  that  they  are  acknowledged  to  be  sacraments  no  less 
than  the  other  two,  by  the  Nestorian  and  Eutychian  heretics, 
&c,  who  separated  from  the  church  ahnost  1400  years  ago,  and 
in  short,  by  all  theCi)ristiao  congregations  of  the  world,  except 
a  comparatively  few  modern,  ones,  called  Protestants,  in  the 
north  of  Europe.  Is  it  from,  ignorance,  or  wilful  misrepresent 
talion,  that  the  bishop  of  London  charges  "  the  Romish  church 
wjth  the  modern  addition  of  five  new  sacraments  ?"  With  re- 
spect to  the  intention  of  the  minuter  oi^  sacrament,  I  presume 
there  is  no  sensible  person  who  does  not  see  the  essential  dif- 
ler-ene^  there  is  between  an  action  that  is  seriously  ptrformedy 
and  the  mimicjcing  or  mockery  of  it  by  a  comedian  or  buflbon^ 
Luther,  indeecl^  wrote,  that  ^  the  Devil  himself  would  perform, 
a  true  sacrament,  if  he  used  the  right  matter  and  form  :"  but  I 
trust,  that  you,  sir,  and  my  other  friends,,  will  not  subscribe  to 
such  an  extravagance..  I  have  also  discussed  the  subjects  of 
relics  and  miracles,,  which  the  prelate  next  brings  forward ;  so 
that  It  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  say  any  thing  more  about 
them,  than  that  the  church,  instead  of  ^^  venerating  fictitious 
relics,  and  inventing  lying  miracles,"  as  he  most  caluraniously 
accuses  her  of  doing,  is  strict  to  an  excess,  in  examirning  the 
proofs  of  them  both,  as  he  would  learn,  if  he  took  pains  to  in- 
quire. In  short,  there  are  but  about  two  or  three  articles  in  his 
lordship*^s  accumulated  charges  against  his  mother  churchy  which 
seem  to  require  a  particular  answer  from  me  at  present.  One 
of  these  is  the  following  ^  *^'  Of  the  same  bad  tendency  is  their 
(the  Catholics)  engaging  such  multitudes  of  people  in  vows  of 
eelibacy  and  useless  retirement  from  the  world,  their  obliging 
them  to  silly  austerities  and  abstinences,  of  no  real  value,  as 
matters  of  great  merit."*  In:  the  first  place,  the  chureb 
never  engages  any  person  whomsoever  in  a  vow  of  celibacy  ;  on 
the  contrary,  she  exerts  her  ntmost  powe?  and  severest  censures, 
^  to  prevent  this  obligation  from  being  contracted  rashly^  or  unr 
der  any  undue  influence.^  True  it  is,  she  teaches,  that  contir 
tiency  is  a  state  of  greater  perfection  than  raatrnnony ;  but  so 
does  St.  Paul  {  and  Christ  himself,^  in  words  too  explicit  and 
|brcib>e  to  admit  of  controversy  on  the  part  of  any  sincei*e 
diristian..  True  it  is,  also,  tliat  liaving  the  choice  of  Iier  sacred 
mtajigters,.  she  selects  those  for-  the  service  of  her  altar,  and  far 

♦  P.  70.  t.  Conril.  THfl.  Se«v<i.  xxr.  Pe  Reg.  enp.  15,  16,  17,  181. 

ir    ;  #««  the  ^19^,  chapter  vij,  of  I  Cor..  V  M-at.  xix.  12,. 


Letter  XLVJIL  9fn 

assisting^  the  faithful  in  their  spiritual  want>,  who  vohmtarily 
embrace  this  more  perfect  state:*  but  so  has  iho  Establishment 
expressed  her  wish  to  do  also,  in  that  very  act  wliich  allows  her 
clergy  to  marry. f  In  like  manner,  1  ncc^  go  no  further  than 
the  homily  on  fasting,  or  the  "  table- of  Vigils,  fasts,  aiul  days 
of  abstinence,  to  be  observed  in  the  year,"  prefixed  to  Tht 
Common  Prayer  Book,  to  justify  our  doctrine  and  j)raciice, 
which  the  bishop  finds  fault  with,,  in  the  eyes  of  every  consistent 
Church-Protestant.  I  believe  the  most  severe  austerities  of  oiif 
saints  never  surpassed  those  of  Christ's  precursor,  wliom  he  so 
much  commended,!  clothed  as  he  was  with  hair-cloth,  and  fed 
with  the  locusts  of  the  desert. 

In  a  former  letter  to  your  society,  I  have  replied  to  what  tl>« 
bishop  here  says  concernmg  the  deposing  of  kings  by  the  Ro- 
man pontiff,  and  have  established  facts  by  which  it  appears, 
that  more  princes  were  actually  dispossessed  of  the  whole,  or  a 
large  part,,  of  their  dominions,  by  the  pretended  gospel-liberty 
of  the  Reformation,  within  the  first  fifty  years  of  this  being  pro- 
claimed, than  the  Popes  had  attempted  to  depose  during  X]w 
preceding  fifteen  hundred  years  of  tl/eir  supremacy.  To  this 
accusation  another  ofa  more  alarming  nature  is  tacked,  that  of 
our  "  annulling  the  most  sacred  promises  and  engagements, 
when  made  to  the  prejudice  of  the  churc4i."§  These  are  other 
vn^rds  for  the  vile  hackneyed  calumny  of  our  not  keepmg  faith 
with  heretics.\\  In  refutation  of  this,  I  might  appeal  to  tlie  doc- 
trine of  our  Theologians,ir  and  to  the  oath>  of  the  British  Ca- 
tholics ;  but  I  choose  rather  to  appeal  to  historical  facts,  and  to 
the  practical  lessons  of  the  leaduig  men  by  whom  these  have 
been  conducted.  I  have  mentioned,  that  when  the  Catholic 
queen  Mary  came  to  the  throne,  a  Protestant  usurper,  lady 
Jane,  was  set  up  against  her,  and  that  the  bishops  Cranmer, 

♦  The  second  Council  of  Carthage,  can.  3,  and  St.  Epiphanilis  Hter.  48,  Mi 
trace  the  discipline  of  sacerdotal  continence  up  to  the  Apostles. 

t  "  Although  it  were  not  only  better  for  the  estimation  of  pri<)>8ts  and  ctlicT  tnin- 
isters,  to  live  chaste,  sole,  and  separated  from  women,  and  the  bond  of  murri-.ipi', 
but  also  they  might  thereby  the  better  attend  to  tlio  administration  of  the  GosprI : 
ftnd  it  were  to  be  wished  that  they  would  willingly  endeavour  thems»'l\e  to  a  flf*" 
of  chastity,  &.c."  2  Edw.  vi.  c.  21.  See  tlit-  injunction  of  queen  KliziiluHi  airaiir4 
tije  admission  of  women  into  colleges,  catlicdrals,  kc.  in  Scrjp'-N  [jif  of  Parkrr. 
See  llkewrse  a  remarkable  instance  of  her  rudeness  to  t^tut  arrhbisliop's  wife. 
Ibid,  and  in  Nichol'S  Progresses,  A.  D.  1.^61.         I  Mat.  xi.  IK  ^-  P.  71. 

II  In  tlie  P^-otestant  Charter-school  Catcchismb,  which  is  ta«glit  by  authority,  the 
following  question  and  answer  occur  p.  9.  "  Q.  How  do  I'ii|.i>f>  treat  tho«« 
whom  they  caJi heretics?— A.  mey  hold  that  faith  is  not  to-  ii<-  kept  w.rl.  hereti.*, 
and  that  the  Pope  can  absolve  subji^ots  from  their  oath  of  ail*.'pi:m(!c  toth^-ir  So»»- 
jeigns." 

*ff  See  In  particular  the  Jesuit  Becan*36  Dt  FiiU  llaretwis  yrestanda* 


302  Letter  XLVIIL 

Ridley,  Latimer,  Hooper,  Rogers,  Ppynet,  Sandys,  and  every 
other  Protestant  of  any  note,  broke  their  allegiance  and  en- 
gagements to  her,  for  no  other  reason  than  because  sl3«  was  a 
Catholic,  and  the   usurper  a  Protestant.     On  the  othjr?  f/and, 
when  Mary  was  succeeded  by  her  Protestant  sister,  Elizabeth, 
though  the  Catholics  were  then  far  more  numerous  and  powei^ 
ful  than  the  Protestants,  not  a  hand  was  raised,  nor  a  seditiou* 
sermon  preached  against  her.     In  the  mean  time,  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Tweed,  where  the  new  Gospellers  had  deposed  their 
sovereign,  and  usurped  her  power,  their  apostle  Knox  publicljr 
preached,  that  "  neither  promise  nor  oath  can  oblige  any  man 
to  obey  or  give  assistance  to  tyrants  against  God  j"*  to  which 
Jesson  his  colleague,  Goodman,  added :  "  If  governors  fall  from 
God,  to  the  gallows  with  them."f     A  third  fellow-labourer  in 
the  same  Gospel  cause,  Buchanan,  maintained,  that  "  princes 
may  be  deposed  by  their  people,  if  they  be  tyrants  against  God 
and  his  truth,  and  that  their  subjects  are  free  from  their  oaths 
and  obedience." J     The  same,  in  substance,  were  the  maxinos 
of  Calvin,  Beza,  and  the  Hugueaots  of  France,  in  general :  the 
temporal  interest  of  their  religion  was  the  Fuiing  principle  of 
their  morality.     But,  to  return  to  our  own  country  :  the  ene- 
mies of  church  and  state  having  hunted  down  the  earl  of  Straf- 
ford, and  procured  him  to  he  attainted  of  high  treason,  the 
king,  Charles  I,  declared  that  he  could  not-i  ^  et>nscien€^j  concur 
to  his  death,  when  the  case  being  referred  to  the  arcbbishopsy 
Usher  and  Williams,  and  three  other  Anglican  bishops,  they 
decided   (in  spite  of  his  majesty's,  conscience,  and  his  oath  to 
administer  justice  in  mercy)  that  he  might,  in  consciences  send 
this  innocent  peer  to  the  hluclcy,  which  he  did  accordingly .<^     I 
should  like  to  ask  bishop  Porteus,  whether  this  decision  of  his 
predecessors  was  not  the  dispensation  of  an  oath^  and  the  an- 
nulling of  the  most  sacred  of  all  obligations?     In  like  manner^ 
most  of  the  leading  men  of  the  nation,  with  most  of  the  elergyy, 
having  sworn  to  tlie  S/xlemu  Leagwe-  cmd  Covenant ,  "  for  tli^- 

♦  In  his  book  addressed!  to  the  nobles  and  people  of  Scotilandi. 

t  De  Obedieut. 

X  History  of  Scotland.— The  same  was  the  express  doctriflc  of  the  Geneva  BJ^ 
ble,  translated  by  CoverdalAv  Goodman,  &,c.  in  that  city,  andl  in  common  use 
ainona:  the  Englistt  Protestant^,  till  king  James's  reiga:  for  in.  a  note  on  verse  13* 
of  2d  Mat.  these  translator  expressly  saj,  "  A  promise  ought  not  to  be  kept^ 
v'here  God's  honour  and  preaching  of  Ms  truth  is  injured."  Hist.  Account  of  Eng.. 
Translations,  by  A.  Johnson,  m  Watson V  Collect,  vol.  iii.  pi  93. 

^  Collier's  Church  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  S(il.— On  the  other  hand,  when  several  ot 
Ihe  Parliament's  st/ldiers,  who  had  beeti  taken  prisonees  at  Brentford,  had  sworn. 
oever  a,!?:un  to  bea3  arms  against  th«,'  king,,  they  were  "  absolved  from  that  oath,*' 
•aye  Clarendon.  '--Uv  their  dJfliines."    EXam..of  Neal's  HisL  bj  Cfrey,.vioL  iii.  p.  Wl 


Letter  XLVIII,  $0$ 

more  effectual  extirpation  of  Popery,"  they  were  dispensed  toitk 
from  the  keeping  of  it,  by  an  express  clause  in  the  act  of  uni- 
formity.*    But  whereas,  by  a  clause  of  the  outh  in  the  samt 
act,  all  subjects  of  the  realm,  down  to  constables  and  school- 
masters, were  obliged  to  swear,  that  "  It  is  not  lawful,  upon 
any  pretence  whatsoever,  to  take  up  arms  against  the  king ;" 
this  oath,  in  its  turn,  was  universally  dispensed  with,  in  tbt 
churches  and  in  parliament,  at  the  Revolution.     I  have  men- 
.    tioned  these  few  facts  and  maxims  concerning  Protestant  di»- 
^,  pensations  of  oaths  and  engagements,  in  case  any  of  your  so- 
*  ciety  may  object,  that  some  Popes  have  been  too  free  in  pro- 
nouncing such  dispensations.     Should  this  have  been  the  case, 
they  alone,  personally,  and  not  the  Catholic  church,  were  ac- 
countable for  it,. both  to  God  and  man. 

I  have  often  wondered,  in  a  particular  manner,  at  the  confi- 
dence with  which  bishop  Porteus  asserts  and  denies  facts  of  an- 
cient Church  History,  in  opposition  to  the  known  truth.     An 
instance  of  this  occurs  in  the  conclusion  of  the  chapter  before 
me,  where  he  says :  "  The  primitive  church  did  not  attempt, 
for  several  hundreds  of  years,  to  make  any  doctrine  necessary, 
which  we  do  not :  as  the  learned  well  know  from  their  writ^ 
ings."f     The  falsehood  of  this  position  must  strike  you,  od 
looking  back  to  the  authorities  adduced  by  me  from  the  an- 
cient fathers  and  historians,  in  proof  of  the  several  points  of 
controversy  which  I  have  maintained :  but,  to  render  it  still 
more  glaring,  I  will  recur  to  the  histories  of  AERIUS  and 
VIGILANTIUS,  two  different  heretics  of  the  fourth  century. 
Both  St.  Epiphanius,{  and  St.  Austin,^  rank  Aerius  among 
the  heresiarchs,  or  founders  of  heresy,  and  both  give  exactly 
the  same  account  of  his  three  characteristical  errors ;  the  first 
of  which  is  avowed  by  all  Protestants,  namely,  that  "  prayers 
and  sacrifices  are  not  to  be  ofl'ered  up  for  the  dead,"  and  i\w 
twoothers  by  most  of  them,  namely,  that  "  there  is  no  obliga- 
tion   of  observing   the  appointed   days   of  fasting,   and    that 
f  priests  ought  not  to  be  distinguished,  in  any  respect,  from  bi- 
shops." ||      So  far  were  the  primitive  Christians  from  tolerating 
these  heresies,  that  its  supporters  were  denied  tlie  use  of  a  placa 
of  worship,  and  were  forced  to  perform  it  in  forests  ruid  ca- 
yerns.ir     Vigilantius  likewise  condemned  prayers  for  tin?  dead^ 
but  he  equally  reprobated  prayers  to  the  saints,  the  honouring 

♦  Statute  13  and  14  Car.  II,  cap.  4.  t  P.  73.  :  Ha^resU  75- 

^  De  Haeres.  torn.  vi.  Ed.  Frob. 

i  Ibid.  S-t.  John  Damascen  and  St.  tshfere  equnlly  condrmn  these  tenets  m 
fcoretical.  IT  Fleury's  lii^.  ad.  An.  3V'|. 


804  Letter  XLVUL 

oT  their  relics,  and  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy,  together  with  vows 
of  continence  in  general.     Against  these  errors,  which  I  need 
not  tell  you  Dr.  Porteus  now  patronises,  as  Vigilantius  former^' 
ly  did,  St.  Jerom  directs  all  the  thunder  of  his  eloquence,  d#- 
<iaring  them  to  be  sacrilegious,  and  the  author  of  them  to  be  a 
detestable  heretic,*     The  learned  Fleury  observes,  that  the  im- 
pious novelties  of  this  heretic  made  no  proselytes,  and  therefore, 
that  there  was  no  need  of  a  council  to  condemn  them.f     Fi- 
nally, to  convince  yourself,  dear  sir,  how  far  the  ancient  fathert 
were  from  tolerating  different  communions  or  religious  tenets 
•  in  the  Catholic  church,  conformably  to  the  prelate's  monstrous 
system,  of  a  Catholic  church,  composed  of  all  the  discordant ' 
and  disunited  sects  in  Christendom,  be  pleased  to  consult  again 
the  passages  which   I  have  collected  from  the  works  of  th« 
former,  in  my  fourteenth  letter  to  your  society ;  or,  what  is  still 
more  demonstrative,   on   this  point,   observe,  in  ecclesiastical 
history,  how  the  Quartodecimans,  the  Novatians,J  the  Dona- 
tists,  and  the  Luciferians,  though  their  respective  errors  a» 
mere  molehills,  compared  with  the  mountains,  which  separate 
the  Protestant  communions  from  ours,  were  held  forth  as  here- 
tics by  the  fathers,  and  treated  as  such  by  the  church,  in  her 
eQi«icil§. 

I  am,  &c» 

J.  M, 


•  Xpist  1  and  2,  adversus  Vigilan.  t  Ad  An.  405. 

:  St.  Cyprian  being  consulted  about  the  nature  of  Novatian's  errors,  answers  : 
•ihere  is  no  need  of  a  strict  inquiry  xchat  errors  he  teaches  while  he  teaches  out'  of 
t/u  c&ur4>"  He  elsewhere  writes :  "^^  The  church  being  one,  cannot  be,  at,  the 
same  timg,  within  and  without.  If  she  be  with  Noyatian,  she  is  not  with  (f  opt , 
GoitieUji§;  if  she  he  with  C<>Fneliu8,  NoYatian  is  not  in.  her,"  Epist.  7Q  adiMag, 


\    306    ] 


LETTER  XLIX. 

To  JAMES  BROWN,  Jun,  Etq. 

OX  RELIGIOUS  PERSECUTJOJf, 

DfiJLR  Sir, 

I  l>ROMisED  to  treat  the  subject  of  religious  persecution  apart, 
a  stibject  of  the  utmost  importance  in  itself,  and  which  is  spoken 
of  by  the  bishop  of  London  in  the  following  terms:  "  They,  th« 
lR;omish  church,  zealously  maintain  their  claim  of  punishing 
^hom  they  please  to  call  heretics,  with  penalties,  imprisonmeiH, 
•tortures,  death."*  Another  writer,  whom  I  have  quoted  abov«, 
says,  that  this  church  '  bre?thes  the  very  spirit  of  cruelty  and 
murder  ;''-|-  indeed  most  Protestant  controvertisis  seem  to  v» 
^ith  each  other  in  the  vehemence  and  bitterness  of  the  term» 
by  which  they  endeavour  to  affix  this  most  odious  charge,  of 
cruelty  and  murder,  on  the  Catholic  church.  This  is  the  fa*- 
vourite  topic  of  preachers,  to  excite  the  hatred  of  their  hearers 
against  their  fellow  Christians :  this  is  the  last  resource  of  baf- 
fled oratorical  hypocrites  :  if  you  admit  the  Papists^  they  cry, 
to  equal  rights,  thesa  wretches  must  and  will  certainly  murder 
you,  as  soon  as  they  can :  the  fourth  Lateran  council  has  esta^ 
olished  the  principle,  and  the  bloody  queen  Mary  has  acted  upon 
a. 

I.  To  proceed  regularly  in  this  matter:  I  begin  with  ex- 
pressly denying  the  bishop  of  London's  charge ;  namely,  that 
the  Catholic  church  "  maintains  a  claim  of  punishing  heretics 
with  penalties,  imprisonment,  tortures,  and  death  ;"  and  I  assert, 
on  the  contrary,  that  she  disclaims  the  power  of  so  doing.  Pope 
Leo  the  Great,  who  flourished  in  the  fourth  century,  writing 
about  the  Manichean  heretics,  who,  as  he  asserted,  "  laid  all 
modesty  aside,  prohibiting  the  matrimonial  connexion,  and  sub- 
verting all  law,  human  and  divine,"  says,  that  '*  the  ecclesiastical 
lenity  was  content,  even  in  this  case,  with  the  sacerdotal  judg- 
ment, and  avoided  all  sanguinary  punishments,"J  however  tlic 
secular  emperors  might  inflix:t  them  for  reasons  of  state.  In  the 
«ame  century,  two  Spanish  bishops,  Ithacius  and  Idacius,  haviiig 

«  P.  71.  t  De  Coetlogon'8  Seasonable  Caution,  p.  16. 

t  Epist  ad  Turib. 

2(1 


«06  tettet  XLf]( 

interfered  in  the  capital  punishment  of  certain  Priscillian  here* 
tics,  both  St.  Ambrose  and  St.  Mtirtin  refused  to  hold  commu- 
nion with  d?em,  even  to  gratify  an  emperor,  whoSe  clemency 
they  were  soliciting:  in  behalf  of  certain  clients.  Long  before 
tlieir  time,  Tertullian  had  taught,  that  "  It  does  nbt  belong  to 
religion  to  force  religion;"*  and  a  considerable  time  after  it, 
when  St.  Austin  and  his  companions,  the  envoys  of  Pope  Gre- 
gory the  Great,  had  converted  our  king  Ethelbert,  to  the  Chris- 
tian faith,  they  particularly  inculcated  to  him,  not  to  use  forci- 
ble means  to  induce  any  of  his  subjects  to  follow  his  example. f 
But  what  need  of  mor«  authorities  on  this  head,  since  our  canon 
law,  as  it  stood  in  ancient  times,  and  as  it  still  stands,  renders 
all  those  who  have  actively  concurred  to  the  death  or  mutila- 
tion of  any  human  being,  whether  Catholic  or  heretic,  Jew  or 
Pagan,  evx^n  in  a  just  war,  or  by  exercising  the  art  of  surgery, 
or  by  judicial  proceedings,  irregular ^  that  is  to  say,  such  per- 
son's cannot  be  promoted  to  holy  orders,  or  exercise  those 
orders,  if  they  have  actually  received  them.  Nay,  when  an 
ecclesiastical  judge  or  tribunal  has,  after  due  examination,  pro- 
nounced that  any  person,  accused  of  obstinate  heresy,  is  actually 
guilty  of  it,  he  is  required  by  the  church,  expressly,  to  declare 
in  her  name,  that  her  power  extends  no  further  than  such  de- 
cision ;  and,  in  case  the  obstinate  heretic  is  liable,  by  the  laws 
of  the  state,  to  suffer  death  or  mutilation,  he  is  required  to  pray 
for  his  pardon.  Even  the  council  of  Constance^  in  condemn- 
ing John  Huss  of  heresy,  declared  that  its  power  extended  no 
further.  I 

II.  But,  whereas  many  heresies  are  subversive  of  the  esta- 
blished governments,  the  public  peace,  and  natural  morality,  it 
does  not  belong  to  the  church  to  prevent  princes  and  states 
from  exercising  their  just  authority  in  repressing  and  punishing 
them,  when  this  is  judged  to  be  the  case ;  nor  would  any  cler- 
gyman incur  irregularity  by  exhorting  princes  and  magistrates 
to  provide  for  those  important  objects,  and  the  safety  of  tlie 
church  itself,  by  repressing  its  disturbers,  provided  he  did  not 
concur  to  the  death  or  mutilation  of  any  particular  disturber. 
Thus  it  appears,  that  though  there  have  been  persecuting  laws 
in  many  Catholic  states,  the  church  itself,  so  far  from  claiming^ 
actually  disclaims  the  power  of  persecuting  ^ 

III.  But  Dr.  Porteus  signifies,*^  that  the  church  itself  has 
claimed  this  power  in  the  third  canon  of  the  fourth  Lateral) 


•  Ad  Scapul.  t  Bed.  Ecc.  Hist.  L  i.  c.  2(5. 

X  Sess.  XV.     See  Labbe's  Concil.  t.  xii.  p.  129.  k  P.  47. 


Lciicr  XLIX.  307 

touncil,  A.D.  1215,  bytlie  tciiour  of  which,  temporal  lords  aiul 
magistrates  were  required  to  exterminate  all  heretics  from  tlnV 
respective  territories,  under  pain  of  these  beinpj  confiscated  lu 
their  soveicrgn  prince,  ?i"  tliey  were  Jajmen,  and  to  tiieir  several 
churclies,  in  case  they-.vere  cleri^^ymen.  From  this  canon,  it 
has  been,  a  hundred  tr.iies  ovei,^,/argucd  at-ainstTJatliOljics,  of 
late  years,;.Mot  only  that  their  cimrch  claims  a  right  to  exter- 
minate heretics,l3ut  also  requires  those  of  her  communion  lo 
aid  and  assist  in'lhis  work  of  destruction,  at  all  times,  and  in  all 
places.  Butjt  must  first  be  observed,  who  were  present  at  this 
council,  and  by  whose  auilidrUy  these  decrec«,.of  a  temporal 
nature,  were  .piissed.  There  were  then  pCesent,  besides  the 
Pope  and  ihe  bishops,  either  in  person  or  by  their  ambassafJor*, 
the  Greel?:  and  the  Latin  em})erors;  the  kings  of  England, 
France,  Hungary,  the  Sicilies,  Arragon,  Cyprus,  and  Jerusa- 
lem ;  aiid  the  representatives  of  a  vast  many  other  principalities 
and  states ;  so  that,  in  fact,  this  cowicil  was  a  congress  pf 
Christendom,  temporal,  as  well  as  spiritual.  We  must,  in  the 
next  place,  remark  the  principal  business,  which  drew  tlpem  to- 
gether. It  was  the  common  cause  of  Christianity  and  human 
nature;  namely,  the  extirpation  of  the  Manichean  heresy, 
which  taught,  that  there  were  two  first  principles,  or  Deities; 
one  of  them  the  ciTator  of  devils,  of  animal  llesh,  of  wine,  of  the 
OldTestament, '^c. ;  the  other,  the  author  of  good  spirits,  of 
the  New  Testament,  &ic. ;  that  unnatural  lusts  were  lawful,  but 
not  the  propagation  of  the  human  species;  that  perjuVy  was 
permitted  to  them,  &;c.*  This  detestable  lieresy,  which  had 
caused  so  m\ich  wickedness  and  bloodshed  in  the  preceding 
centuries,  broke  out  with  fresh  fury,  in  the  twelfth  century, 
throughout  diflerent  parts  of  Europe,  more  particularly  in  the 
neighbourhopd  of  Albi,  in  Langredoc,  were  they  were  support- 
ed by  the  powerful  counts  of  THolouse,  Comminges,  Foix,  and 
other  feudatory  princes;  as  also  'hy  numerous  bodies  of  ban- 
ditti, called  Rotarii,  whom  they  hired  for  this  purpose.  Thus 
strengthened,  they  set  tbeir  sovereigns  at  defiance,  carrying  fire 
and  sword  through  their  dominions,  murdering  their  subjects, 
particularly  the  clergy,  burning  the  churches  and  monasteries, 
and,  in  short,  Waging  open  war  with  them,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  with  .Christianity,  morality,  and  human  nature  itself; 
casting  tire  Bibles  into  the  jakes^  profaning  the  altar^late,  and 

•  ♦  See  the  Protectant  historiafi  Moshcim's  account  of  the  the  .shockms  TioiatTor 
of  decency  and  other  crimes  of  which  the  Albigenses,  Bretliren  of  the  Tree  SpUS 
'&'c.  were  guilty  in  the  13Lli  century.    Vol.  iii.  "p.  28 1. 


308  Letter  XLTX. 

practising  their  detestable  rites  for  the  extinction  of  the  humatl 
species.     It  was  to  put  an  end  to  tliese  horrors,  that  the  great 
Lateran  council  was  held,  in  the  year  1215,  when  the  heresy  itself 
was  condemned  by  the  proper  authority  of  the  church,  and  the 
lands  of  the  feudatory  lords,  who  protected  it,  were  declared  to 
be  forfeited  to  the  govereicn   princes,  of  whom  they  were  held, 
by  an   authority  derived   from  those  sovereign   princes.     The 
decree  of  the  council  reprarded  only  the  prevailing  heretics  oj 
that  time,  who,  though   "  wearing  diflerent  faces,"  being  indif- 
ferently called  Albigenses,  Calhari,   Poplicolae  Paterini,  Bul- 
gari,  Bacomilii,   Beguini,  Beguardi,  and  Brethren  of  the  Free 
Spirit,  &;c.  were  "  all  tied  together  by  the  tails,"  as  their  coun- 
cil  expresses   it,   like    Sampson's  foxes,   in  the  same  band  of 
Manicheism.*     Nor  was  this  exterminating  canon  ever  put  in 
force  against  any  other   heretics  except  the  Albigenses,  nor 
even  against  them,  except  in   the    case  of  the  above  named 
counts ;  it  was  never  so  much   as   published,  or  talked  of,  in 
these  islands:  so  little  have  Protestants  to  fear  from  their  Ca- 
tholic fellow-subjects,  by  reason  of  the  third  canon  of  the  coun- 
cil of  Lateran. f 

IV.  But  they  are  chiefly  the  Smithfield  fires  of  queen  Mary's 
reign,  which  furnish  matter  for  the  inexhaustible  declamation 
of  Protestant  controvertists,  and  the  unconquerable  prejudices 
of  the  Protestant  populace  against  the  Catholic  religion,  as 
"  breathing  the  very  spirit  of  cruelty  and  murder,"  according 
to  the  expression  of  the  above  quoted  orators.  Nevertheless, 
I  have  unanswerably  demonstrated  elsewhere,  J  that,  "  if  queen 
Mary  was  a  persecutor,  it  was  not  in  virtue  of^the  tenets  of  her 
religion  that  she  persecuted."  I  observed,  that  during  almost 
two  years  of  her  reign,  no  Protestant  was  molested  on  account 
of  his  religion;  that  in  the  instructions,  which  the  Pope  sent 
her  for  her  conduct  on  the  throne,  there  is  not  a  word  to  re- 
commend persecution ;  nor  is  there  one  word  in  the  synod, 
which  the  Pope's  legate,  Cardinal  Pole,  held  at  that  time,  as 
Burnet  remarks,  in  favour  of  persecution^  This  representative 
of  his  holiness  even  opposed  the  persecution  project,  with  all 

/ 

*  For  a  succinct,  yet  clear  account  of  Manicheism,  see  Bossuet's  VarietionS, 
Book  xi ;  also,  for  many  additional  circumstances  relating  to  it,  see  Letters  to  a 
Prebendary,  Letter  IV. 

t  For  an  account  of  the  rebellions  and  antisocial  doctrine  and  practices  of  the 
Wickiiflites  and  Hussites,  see  tlie  lasjt  quoted  work,  Letter  IV ;  also  History  of 
Winchester,  vol.  i.  p.  29G. 

X  Letters  te  a  Prebendary,  Letter  IV,  on  persecution;  also  History  of  Wiii- 
chester,  vol.  i.  p.  354,  &c.  See  in  the  former,  p.  149,  &c.  proofs  of  the  infidelity 
of  the  famous  martyrologist,  John  Fox,  and  of  the  great  abatexaeats  which  are  to 
•be  made  in  his  account  of  tlie  Protestant  sufferer*- 


Letter  XLIX,  309 

his  influence,  as  did  king  Philip's  chaplain  also,  who  even 
preached  against  it,  and  defied  the  advocates  of  it  to  produce 
an  authority  from  Scripture  in  its  favour.  In  a  word,  we  have 
the  arguments  made  use  of  in  the  queen's  council,  by  those  ad- 
vocates for  persecution,  Gardiner,  Bonner,  he.  by  whose  ad- 
vice it  was  adopted  ;  yet  none  of  tliem  pretended,  that  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Catholic  church  required  such  a  measure.  On  the 
contrary,  all  their  arguments  are  grounded  on  motives  of  state 
policy'.  Indeed,  it  cannot  be  denied,  that  the  first  Protestants, 
in  this,  as  in  other  countries,  were  possessed  of,  and  actuated 
by  a  spirit  of  violence  and  rebellion.  Lady  Jane  was  set  up, 
and  supported  in  opposition  to  the  daughters  of  king  Henry,  by 
all  the  chief  men  of  the  party,  both  churchmen  and  laymen,  as 
I  have  observed.  Mary  had  hardly  forgiven  this  rebellion, 
when  a  fresh  one  was  raised  against  her,  by  the  duke  of  Suffolk, 
sir  Thomas  Wyat,  and  all  the  leading  Protestants.  In  the 
mean  time,  her  life  was  attempted  by  some  of  them,  and  her 
death  was  publicly  prayed  for  by  others ;  while  Knox  and 
Goodman,  on  the  other  side  of  the  Tweed,  were  publishing 
books  Against  the  Monstrous  regiment  of  Women,  and  exciting 
the  people  of  this  countr}^,  as  well  as  their  own,  to  j)ut  their 
Jezabel  to  death.  Still,  I  grant,  persecution  was  not  the  way 
to  diminish  the  number  or  the  violence  of  the  enthusiastic  insur- 
gents. With  toleration  and  prudence,  on  the  part  of  the  go- 
vernors, the  paroxysm  of  the  governed  would  quickly  have  sub- 
sided. 

V.  Finally ;  whatever  may  be  said  of  the  intolerance  of 
Mary,  I  trust  that  this  charge  will  not  be  brought  against  the 
next  Catholic  sovereign,  James  II.  I  have  elsewhere  *  shown, 
that,  when  duke  of  York,  he  used  his  best  endeavours  to  get  the 
act,  De  Heretico  Comburendo,  repealed,  and  to  afford  an  asy- 
lum to  the  Protestant  exiles,  who  flocked  to  England,  from 
France,  on  the  revocation  of  the  edict  of  Nantz,  and,  in  short, 
that,  when  king,  he  lost  his  crown  in  the  cause  of  toleration : 
his  Declaration  of  Libert i/  of  Conscience,  having  been  the  deter- 
mining cause  of  his  deposition.  But  wliat  need  of  words  to  dis- 
prove the  odious  calunmy,  that  Cai holies  "  breathe  the  spirit 
of  cruelty  and  murder,"  'and  are  t^jliged,  by  their  religion,  to 
be  persecutors,  when  every  one  of  our  gentry,  who  has  made 
the  tour  of  France,  Italy,  and  Germany,  has  experienced  the 
contrary  ;  and  has  been  as  cordially  received  by  the  Pope  him- 
self, in  his  metropolis  of  Rome,  >  here  he    is  both  prince  ani 

History  of  Winchester,  voL  i.  p.  437,  Letters  to  a  Prebendary,  p.  376. 


WX^  Letter  XLTX. 

l^shop,  in  the  character  of  an  English  Protestant,  as  if  he  wer« . 
known  to  be  the  most  zealous  Catholic ! — Still,  I  fear,  there  are 
some  individuals  in  your  society,  as  there  are  many  other  Pro- 
testants of  my  acquaintance  elsewhere,  who  cling  fast  to  this 
charge  against  Catholics,  of  persecution^  as  the  last  resource 
%*  their  own  intolerance;  and,  it  being  true/ that  Catholics, 
have,  in  some  times  and  places,  unsheathed  the  sword  against 
the  heterodox,  these  persons  insist  upon  it,  that  lijs  an  essential 
part  of  the  Catholic  religion  to  persecute.  On  tlie  other  hand, 
many  Protestants,  either  from  ignorance  or  policy,  nowadays, 
claim  for  themselves,  exclusively,  the  credit  of  toleration.  As 
an  instance  of  this,  the  bishop  of  Lincoln  writes:  *'  I  consider 
toleration  as  a  mark  of  the  true  church,  and  as  a  principle,  re- 
commended by  the  most  eminent  of  our  reformers  and  divines."* 
In  these  circumstances,  I  know  but  of  one  argument  to  stop  the 
mouths  of  such  disputants,  which  is  to  prove  to  them,  that  per- 
secution has  not  only  been  more  generally  practised  by  Pro- 
testants than  by  Catholics,  but  also,  that  it  has  been  more 
warmly  defended  and  supported  by  the  most  eminent  "  Reform- 
ers and  divines"  of  their  party,  than  \iy  their  opponents. 

I.  The  .learned  ^ergier  defies  Protestants  to  mention  so  much 
as  a  town,  in  which  their  predecessors,  on  becoming  masters  of 
it,  tolerated  a  single  Catholic  in  it.f  Rousseau,  who  was  edu- 
cated a  Protestant,  says,  that  "  the  Reformation  was  intolerant 
from  it  cradle,  and  its  authors  universally  persecutors."!  Baylej, 
who  was  a  Calvinist,  has  published  much  the  same  thing.  Fi- 
nally, the  Huguenot  minister,  Jurleu,  acknowledges,  that"  Ge- 
neva, Switzerland,  the  Republics,  electors  and  princes  of  the 
empire,  England,  Scotland,  Sweden,  and  Denmark,  had  all 
employed  the  power  of  the  state  to  abolish  Popery,  and  esta-, 
bjish  the  Reformation. "§  But  to  proceed  to  other  more  posi-, 
tive  proofs  of  what  has  been  said ;  the  first  father  of  Protest- 
antism, finding  his  new  religion,  which  he  had  submitted  to  the 
Pope,  condemned  by  him,  immediately  sounded  the  trumpet  of 
persecution  and  murder  against  the  pontiff,  and  all  his  support- 
ers, in  the  following  terms  :  "  If  we  send  thieves  to  the  gallows, 
and  robbers  to  the  block,  why  do  we  not  fall  on  those  masters 
of  perdition,  the  Popes,  cardinals,  and  bishops,  with  all  our 
force,  and  not  give  over  till  we  have  bathed  our  hands  in  their 
blood  .''"II     He  elsewhere  calls  the  Pope,  "  a  mad  wolf,  against 

*  Charge  in  1812.  t  Trait.  Hist,  et  Dogmat 

X  Letters  dc  la  Mont. 

^  Tab.  Lett,  quoted  by  Bossuet,  Avertiss,  p.  625. 

V  Ad  Silvest.  Pereir.  ' 


Letter  XLIX,  31i 

whbm  every  one  ought  to  take  arms,  without  waiting  for  aD 
order  from  the  magistrate."  He  adds,  "  if  you  fall  before  the 
beast  has  received  its  mortal  wound,,. yoiuw.ill  have  but  one 
thing  to  be  sorry  for,  that  you  did  not  bury. your  dagger  in  itg 
breast.  All  that- defend j him  ,must  be  tneated  like  a  band  of 
robbers,  be  they  kings  or  be  they  G.-esars.'.'*  By  these  and 
similar  mcentives,  with  which  the  works  of  > Luther  abound,  he 
not  Oitly- excited  the  Lutherans  themselves  to  propagate  tlieir 
religion  by  fire  and  sword  against  the  emperou  and  other  Ca- 
tholic princes,  but  also  gave  occasion  .to  all  the-.sanguinary  and 
frantic  scenes,  which  the  Anabaptists  played,,  at  the  same  time, 
through  the  lower  part  of  Germany.  Coeval  witlj  these  was  the 
civil  war,  which  another  arch-reformer,  Zuinglius,  lighted  up  in 
Switzerland,  by  wayof  propagating  his  peculiar  system,  and 
the  persecution  which  hfe  raised  .equally  against  the  Catholics 
and  the  Anabaptists.  Even  the  moderate  jVIelaiictlion  wrote  a 
book  in  defence  of  religious  persecution,!  and  the  conciliatory 
Bucer,  who  became  professor  of  divinity  at  Cambridge,  not 
satisfied  with  the  burning  of  the  heretic,  Servetus,  preached  that 
"  his  bowels  ought  to  liave,  beeii  toruout,:  and  his  body  chop- 
ped to  pieces."! 

IL  But  the  great  ^champion  of  persecution,  every  one  knows, 
«v^as  the  founder  of  the  second  great  branch  of  Protestantism, 
John  Calvin.  Not  content  with  burning  Servetus,  beheading 
Gruet,  and  persecuting  other  distinguished  Protestants,  Castallo, 
Bolsec,  and  Gentilis,  (wlio  being  apprehended  in  die  neighr 
bouring  Protestant  eanton  of  Berne,  was  put  to  death  there)  he 
set  up  a  consistorial  inquisition  at  Geneva,  for  forcing  every 
one  to  conform  to  his  opinions,  and  required,  that  the  magis- 
trates should  punish  whomever  this  consistory  condenmed.  He 
was  succeeded  in  his  spirit^  as  well  as  in  his  ofiice,  by  Beza, 
who  wrote  a  folio  work  in  defence. of  •persecution.'^  In  this  he 
shows,  that  Luther,  Melancthon,  Buliinger,  Gapito,  no  less  thaa 
Galvin,  had  written  works,  expressly  in  defence  of  Uiis  prin- 
ciple, which,  accordingly,  was  firmly  majnlained  by  Calvin*s.y 
followers,  particularly  in  France.  Bos.suet  refers  to  the  public' 
records,  of  Nismes,  Montpcller  and  otlier  places,  in  proof  of  lh« 
directions,  issued  by  the  Oiihilnist  coi>sistories  to  their  g^'perals, 
for  "forcing  the  Papists  to  embrat;e  the  Reformation  .by  taxea, 
quartering  soldiers  upon  them,  demolishing  their  liouses,  &ic." 

*  Theses  apud  SJeid.  A.  D.  1545.  Opera  Luth.  tom.L 

t  Be/a,  Dc  Haeret.  puniend. 

t  Ge/.  Brandt.  Hist.  Abreg.  Kefor.  Pais  Bas,vol.  i.  p.  454. 

i  D*  Haereticispunietidista  Civili  Magistratu,  &.c.  h  Theod.  Beza,  .. 


31^  Letter  XLTX: 

and  he  says,  "  the  wells  into  which  the.  Gatholics  were fltingj 
and  the  instruments  of  torture  which  were  used  at  the  first  men- 
tioned city,  to.  forcQ  them  to  attend  the  Protestant  sermons,  ajre 
things  of  public  notoriety."*    In  faqt,  who  has  not  read  of  the 
ipfamous  baron  D'Adrets^  whose  savage  sport  it  was,  to  torture, 
and  murder  Catholics,  in  a  Catlioliq  kingdpm^  and  who  forced 
his  son   literally  to  wash  his  hai^ds  in  their  blood  i^     Who  has 
ipt  heand  of  the  inhuman  Jane,  queen  of  Navarre,  who  massa- 
cred priests  and  religious  persons,  by  hundreds,  merely  qn  ac-. 
count  of  their  sacred  character  ?     In   short.   Catholic  France, 
throughput  its  extent,  and  during  a  great  nuiiiber  of  years,  was 
a  scene  of  desolation  and  slaughter,  from  the  unrelenting  per- 
secutipn  of  its  Huguenot  subjects.     Nor  was  the  spectacle  dis-, 
similar  in  the  Low  Countries,  when  Calvinism  got  a  footing  in. 
them.     Their  first  synod,  held  in  1574,  equally  proscribed  the 
Catholics  and; the  Anab?.ptists,  calling  upori  the  magistrates  to, 
support  their  decrees, f  which  decrees  were  renewed  in  several, 
sub^iequent  synods.     I  have  elsewhere  quoted  a  late  Protestant, 
writer,  who,  on  the  authority  of  existing  pyblic  records,  de-. 
scribes  the  horrible  torments  with  which  Vandermerk  and  Sonoi, 
two  generals  of  the  prince  of  Orange,  put  to  death  incredible 
numbers  of  Dutch  Catholics. J'      Other  writers  furnish   more 
ample  materials  of  the  same  kind.§     But  while  the  Calvinist 
ministers,  continued  to  stimulate  their  magistrates  to  redoubled 
severities   against  the   Catholics,   for  which   purpose,  among 
Other  means,  they,  translated  into  Dutch    and   published  the 
above-nientioned  work  of  Beza,  a  new  object  of  their  persecu- 
tion arost^  in  the  bosom  of  their  own  society ;.  Arminius,  Vos- 
sius,  Episcopius,  and  some  other  divines,  supported  by  the  il- 
lustrious, statesmen,  Barnevelt  and  Grotius,  declared  against  the 
more  rigorous,  pf  Calvin's  maxims.     They  would  not  admit, 
that  God  decrees  men  to  be  wicked,  and  then  punishes  them, 
everlastingly  for  what  they  cannot  help  ;  nor  that  many  persons 
ai-e  in  his.  actual  grace  and  favour,  while  they  are  immersed  in 
the  most  enormous  crimes.     For  denying  this,  Barnevelt  was 
ljeheaded,||  Grotius  was  condemned  to  perpetual  imprisonmejit, 
and  all  the  remonstrant  clergy,  as  they  were  called,  were  ba- 
nished, at  the  requisition  of  the  synod  of  Dort,  from  their,  fami- 
lies and  their  country,  with  circumstfinces.of  the  greatest  cruelty. 

*.  Variat.  L.  x.  m.  52.  t  Brandt,  vpl.  i.  p.  227. 

t;  P.  23a.     Letters  to  a.Prchend.  p.  103. 

^,  See  tlie  learned  Estius's.  History  of  tlie  MMyrspf  Govcu^n;  De  Brandt,  &e, 
II,  Diodati,  quoted  by  Brandt,  say<jtliat  the  cations  of  Dort  carried  off  the  head  of 
narnevel^. 


Letter  XLIX,  315. 

1q  speaking  of  Lutheranism,  I  have  passed  by  many  perse- 
cuting decrees  and  practices  of  its  adherents  u^^aiiist  Calvinists 
and  Zuinglians,  and  many  more  of  Calv.inists  against  [.utlicrans; 
while  both  parties  agr^ed'in  showing  no  mercy  to  tlic  Anaba|>- 
tists.  Before  I  quit  the  continent,  1  qusst  mention  \.\\v  liiilheran 
kingdoms  of  Denmark  and  Sweden,  in  both  wliicli,  as  Jmicau 
has  signified  above,  the  Catliolic  religion  was  e\tir{)atc{l,  and. 
Protestaniism  established  by  means,  of  rigorous,  persecuting 
laws,  which  denounced  the  punishment  of  death  against  the 
■  former.  Professor  jMessenius,  who  wrote  about  the  year  1600, 
mentions,  four  Catholics  who  had  recently  been  put  to  death, 
in  Sweden,  on  account  of  their  religion,  and  eight  others  who 
liad  been  imprisoned  and  tortured,  on  that  account,  of  whom  he 
himself  was  one.* 

III.  To   pass   over  now,  to   the  northern  pnrt  of  our  own 
island :  the   first   reformers   of  Scotland,    having    deliberately 
murdered  Cardinal  Beaton,  archbishop  of  St.  Andiew's,f  and 
riotously  destroyed  the  churches,  monasteries,  and  every  thing, 
else,,  which  they  termeid  monuments  of  Popery,  assembled  in  a 
tumultuous  and   illegal;  manner,  and   before  even  their  own  re- 
ligion was  established  by  law,   they  condemned   the  Catholic*, 
to  capital  punishment  for  the  exercise  of  theirs:  "  such  stran- 
gers," says  Robertson,  "  '.vere  men,  at  that  time,  to  the  spirit 
of  toleration  and  the  laws  of  humanity  !"{     Their  chief  apostle 
was  John  Knox,  an  apostate  friar,  who,  in  all  his  publications 
and  sermons,  maintained,  that  "  it  is  not  birth,  but  (Jod's  elec- 
tion, which  confers  a  right  to  the  throne  and  to  magistracy;" 
that  "  no  pr*)mise  or  oath,  made  to  an  enemy  of  the  truth,  that 
is  to  a  Catholic,  is  binding ;"  and  that  '^  every  such  enemy,  in 
a  high  station,  is  to  be  deposed. "§    Not  content  with  threaten- 
ing to  depose  her,  he  told  his  queeji,  to  her  face,  that  the  Pro- 
testants had  a  right  to  take  the  sword  of  justice  into  their  hands, 
and  to   punish  her,  as   Samuel  slew  Agag,  and   as  Elias  slew 
Jezabel's  prophets. |t    Conformably  with  this  doctrine,  he  wrote 
into   England,  that-  "  the  nobility  and   people  were   bound   in 
conscience,  not  only  to  withstand  the  proceedings  of  th:it  .l:"a- 
])el,  Mary,  whom. they  call  queen,  but  also  to  put  her  to dentlr, 
and  aH  her  priests  wiih  her."ir    His  fellow  apostles,  Goodman, 
Willox,  Buchanan,  Rough,  Black,  &c.  constantly  inculcated  to 

♦  Scandia  Illustrat.  quoted  by  Le  Drun.     Mess.  E^plio.  t.  iv.  p.  40. 

t  Gilb.  Si^iart's  Hist.bf  Rpf.  in  Scot.  vol.  i.  p.  47,  &r. 

:  Histof  S.-ctland,  An.  ir.OO.  <^  See  CoUier's  Ecr.  Hist.  vol.  u  p  448. 

ii  Stuart's  Hj^t.  vol.  i.  p.  59. 

U  Cited  by  !>*•,  JPutersoii^in  his  Jeru".  and  BabeL 


«4  Ikiter  XLIX, 

the  people  the  same  seditious  and  persecuting -doctrine ;  and  tlw 
Presbyterian  ministers,  in  general,  earnestly  pressed,  for; the 
execution  of  their  innocent  queen,  who  was  accused  of  a  mur* 
der,  perpetrated  by  their  own  Protestant  leaders.*  T!i€  sanae 
unrelenting  intolerance  was  seen  among  "  the  most  moderate" 
of  their  clergy,.  *'  wliien  they  were  assembled  by  order  of  king 
James  and  his  .council,  to  inquire  whether  the  Catholic  earls  of 
Huntly,  Errol,*  and  their  fQllowers,  on  making  a  proper  con- 
cessioUj  might  not  be  admitted  into  the  church,  and  be  exempt 
from  further  punishment?"  These  ministers  then  answered^ . 
that  "  Though  the  gates  of  mercy  are  alwa}^  open  for  those 
who  repent,  yet,.as^  these, noblemen  had  been  guilty  of  idolatry,  . 
(the  Catholic  religion)  ; a  crime  descrying  death  ^by  the  laws 
both  of  God  and  man,  the  civil  magistrate  could  pot  legally 
pardon  them,,  and  that,  though  th^  church  should  absolw  them, 
it  was  his  duty- to  inflict  punishment  upon  them*"!  Bnt  we 
need  not  be  surprised  at  any  severity  of  the  Presbyterian* 
against  Catholics,.,  when,  among  other  penances,  ordained 
by  public  autbowty,  against  tlieir.owa  members  who  should 
break  the  fast  ofj^ent,  ivhipping  in,  the  cAwrcA was  one.f 

IV.  The  father  of  the  Church  of  England,  under  the  authori- 
ty of  the  protector  Seymour,  duke  of  Somerset,  was  confessedly 
Thomas  Cranmer,  whom  Henry  VIII.  raised  to  the  archbishop- 
ric of  Canterbury ;  of  whom  it  is  difficult  to  say,  whether  his 
obsequiousnj?ss  to  the, passions  of  his  successive  masters,  Henry, 
Seymour,  and  Dudley,  or  his  barbarity  >to  the  sectaries  wha 
were  in  his  power,  was  the  more  odious^..  There  is  this  circum- 
stance, which' distinguishes  him  from  alnvJSt.  every  other  perse- 
cutor, that  he  acti;yel3'  promoted  the  capital  punishment,  not 
only  of  those  who  diiTered  from  him  in.  religion,  ]3wt  ,also  of 
those  who  agre^dvvith'  him  in  it.  It  is  admitted  by  his  adva- 
cates,<^  that?  he  was  instr-umental,  during  the  reign -of  Henry,  in 
bringing  to  the  stake  the  Protestants,  Lambert,  Askew,  Frith, 
and  Allen,-besides  condemning  a  great  many  others  to  it,  for. 
denying  the  corporeal  presence  of  Christ  inthe  sacrament,  which  ^ 
he  disbelieved  himself  fll  and  it  is  equall}'  certain,  that  during., 
the  reign  of  the  child- J^ward,  he  continued  to  convict  Arians  . 
and  Anabaptists  capiiall^',  and  to  press  for  their  execution. 
Two  of  thescy  Joan.Kj(»€ll:?ipd  G^org.e  Van  Par,  hi?  got  actually  ; 


•  Stuart's  Hist.  vol.  i.  p.  255  t  Robertson's  Hist  Am  1596. 

t  Stuprt,  vol.  ii.  p.  94, 

V  Fox,  Acts  and  Monum.     Fuller's  Church  Hist^b..v.  , 

I  ^ee  LpUera  to  a  Preb.  p.  206.   . 


Letter  XLIX.  315 

burnt :  preventing  the  young  Uing,  Etiwnrd,  from  pardoning 
them,  by  telling  him,  that  "  princes  heiiit;  (iod's  deputies, 
ought  to  punish  impieties  against  him."*  The  two  next  most 
eminent  fathers  of  the  English .  church  were,  unquestionably, 
bishop  Ridley,  and  bishop  Latimer,  both  of  them  noted  perse- 
cutors, and  persecutors  of  Protestants  to  the  extremity  of  death, 
no  less  than  of  Anabaptists  and  other  sectaries!! 

Upon  the  second  establishment  of  the  Protestant  religion  in 
England,  when  Elizabeth  ascended  the  throne,  it  was  again 
buttressed  up  here,  as  in  every  other  country,  where  it  prevail- 
ed, by  the  most  severe,  persecuting  laws.  I  have  elsewhere 
shown,  from  authentic  sources,  that  above  two  hundred  Ca- 
tholics were  hanged,  drawn  and  quartered  during  her  reign,  for 
the  mere  profession  or  exercise  of  the  religion  of  their  ancestors 
for  almost  one  thousand  years.  Of  this  number  fifteen  were 
euidemned  for  denying  the  queen's  spiritual  supremacy,  one 
hundred  and  twenty-six  for  the  exercise  of  their  priestly  func- 
tions, «nd  the  rest  for  being  reconciled  to  the  Catholic  church, 
for  heai^oig  mass,  or.  aiding  and  abetting  Catholic  pries^s.J 
When  to  tt^se  sanguinary  scenes  are  added  those  of  many  Imn- 
dreds  of  othe?  Catholics,  who  perished  in  dungeons,  who  were 
driven  into  exilt,  or  who  were  stripped  of  their  property,  it  will 
appear,  that  the  p«^rsecution  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  was  far  more 
gi'ievpus  than  that  of  her  sister  Mary;  especially  when  the 
proper  deductions  are  made  from  the  sufferers  under  the  latter.^ 
Nor  was  persecution  confined  to  the  Catholics ;  for,  when  great 
numbers  of  foreign  Anabaptists,  and  other  sectaries,  had  fled 
into  England,  from  the  fires  and  gibbets  of  their  Protestant 
brethren  in  Holland,  they  found  their  situation  much  worse 
here,  as  they  complained,  than  it  had  been  in  their  own  coun- 
try. To  silence  these  complaints,  the  bishop  of  London,  Ed- 
win Sandys,  published  a  book  in  vindication  of  religious  perse- 
cution. |t  In  short,  the  Protestant  church  and  state  concurred 
to  their  extirpation.  An  assembly  of  them,  to  the  number  of 
twenty-seven,  having  being  seized  upon  in  1575,  som«j  of  them 


♦  Burnet's  Ch.  Hist  p.  ii.  b.  i. 

t  See  the  proofs  of  these  facts  collected  from  Fox,  Burnet,  Hrylin,  and  CoUicr» 
in  Letters  to  a  Preb.  Let.  V.  /-    i   r 

t  Certaiu  opponents  of  mine  have  publicly  objected  ^o  m^ ,  that  tlieso  «  a  holies 
suffered  for  Hi^ktreastni :  true  ;  the  laws  of  persi-pution  doclare  I  «■»:  lnil  th«-u  ooU 
treason  consisted  in' their  x^fi'Xion.  Thus  the  Apnstl.v.,  un<I  oth.r  Christian  n>j^)T^ 
were  traitors  in  the  eye  of  the  Pa^on  hw  ;  an  1  the  rhi^f  p-irsts  .i.'rlar.|d,  with 
rejjpect  to  Christ  himself;  ire  hnvf.  a  //ir,  (tnd  aceordlnj  to  that  he  oujlit  to  iH, 

^  See  letters  to  a  Prel>endary,  pp.  li'<,  tr»0. 

•*  Ger.  Brandt,  Hist.  Reform.  Abreg.  vol.  i.  p.  234. 


316  Utter  XLIX, 

were  so  intimidated  as  to  recant  their  opinions,   some  were 
scourged,  two  of  tliem,  Peterson  and  Tenvort,  were  burnt  to 
death   in    Smithfield,   and  the  rest  banished,*     Besides  these 
foreigners,  the  English  Dissenters  were  also  grievously  perse- 
cuted.    Several  of  them,  such  as  Thacker,  Copping,  Green- 
wood, Barrow,  Penry,  he.  were  put  to  death,  which  rigours 
they  ascribed  principally  to  the  bishops,  particularly  to  Parker, 
Aylmer,  Sandys,  and  Whitgift.f    The  last  named,  they  accused 
of  being  the  chief  author  of  the  famous   inquisitorial   court, 
called  the  Star  Chamber,  which  court,  in   addition  to  all  its 
other  vexations  and  severities,   employed  the  rack  and  torture, 
to  extort  confession.!     The  doctrines  and  practice  of  persecu- 
tion, in  England,  did  not  end  with  the  race  of  Tudor.     JameS 
I,  though  he  was  reproached  with  being  favourable  to  the  Ca- 
tholics,  nevertheless  signed  warrants  for  twenty-five  of  thew 
to  be  hanged  and  quartered,  and  sent  one  hundred  and  twen^'- 
€ight  of  them  into  banishment,  barely  on  account  of  thei*'  re- 
ligion, besides  exacting  the  fine  of  20Z.  per  month  froi-^  those 
who  did  not  attend  the  church  service.    Still  he  was  r-^peatediy 
called  upon  by  parliament  to  put  the  penal  law;s  ja  force  witli 
^eater  rigour ;  in  order,  say  they,  "  to  advance  the  glory  of 
Almighty  God,  aiid  the  everlasting  honour  of  jour  majesty;"^ 
and  he  was  warned  by  archbishop  Abbot,  against  tolerating 
■Catholics,  in  the  following  terms  :  "  Yoht  majesty  hath  pro- 
pounded a  toleration  of  religion.     By  ^our  act  you  labour  to 
set  up  that  most  damnable  and  heretical  doctrine  of  the  church 
of  Rome,  the  whore  of  Babylon  ;  and  thereby  draw  down  upon 
the  kingdom  and  yourself,   God's  heavy  wiiith  and  indigna- 
tion."!)    ^"  ^^^^  mean  time  the  Puritans  complained  loudly  of 
the  persecution,  which  t!iey  endured  from  the  court  of  High 
Commission,  and  particularly   from  archbishop  Bancroft,  and 
the  bishops  Neale,  of  Litchfield,  and  King,  of  London.     They 
charged  the  former  of  these,  with  not  only  condemning  Edward 
Wightman  for  his  opinions,   but  also,  with   getting  the  king's 
warrant  for  his  execution,  who  was  accordingly  burnt  at  Lich- 
field ;  and  the  latter,  with  treating,  in  the  same  way,  Bartholo- 
mew Legat,   who  was  consumed  in   Smithtield.lT     The  same 
unrelenting  spirit  of  persecution  prevailed  in  the  addresses  of 
parli-iment,  and  of  many  bishops  to  Charles  I,  which  had  dis- 

.      ♦  Brandt,  vol.  i.  p.  234.  Hist,  of  Churches  of  Eng.  and  Scotl.  vol.  ii.  p.  19».. 

I      t  Ibid.  J  Mo.sheira,  voL  ir.  p.  40. 

^  Rushworth's  Collect,  vol.  i.    |  .  141.  ||  Rushworth's  Collect 

IF  Chandler's  Introductv  t.«.  UiW.bprch.e's  Hist.,  of  fanj^uis.  p.  80..    ^c^'s  Hii$t  of 
PuriL  voL  ii.  p.  ^6. 


LetUr  XLIX.  317 

gt-aced  those  presented  to  his  father :  one  of  these,  signed  bj 
the  renowned  archbishop  Usmer,  and  f^leven  other  Irish  bishops 
of  the  establishment,  declares,  that  •*  to  give  toleration  to  Pa- 
pists, is  to  become  accessary  to  superstition,  idolatry,  and  the 
perdition  of  souls  5  and  that,  therefore,  it  is  a  grievous  sin.^'* 
At  length  the  Presbyterians,  and  Independents,  getting  the  up- 
per hand,  had  an  opportunity  of  giving  full  scope  to  their 
characteristic  intolerance.  Their  divines,  being  assembled  at 
Sion  college,  condemned,  as  an  error,  the  doctrine  of  tolera- 
tion, **  under  the  abused  term,"  as  they  expressed  it,  "  of  li- 
berty of  conscience."!  Conformably  with  this  doctrine,  they 
procured  from  their  parliament  a  number  of  j)ersecuting  acts, 
from  those  of  fining,  up  to  those  of  capital  punishment.  The 
objects  of  them  were  not  only  Catholics,  but  also  church  of 
England  men,|  Quakers,  Seekers,  and  Arians.  In  the  mean 
time,  they  frequently  appointed  national  fasts  to  atone  for  thc^r 
pretended  guilt,  in  being  too  tolerant.^  Warrants  for  the  exe- 
cution of  four  English  Catholics,  were  extorted  from  the  kin*^. 
while  he  was  in  power,  and  near  twenty  others  were  publicly 
executed  under  the  parliament  and  the  protector.  Tliis  hypo- 
critical tyrant  afterwards  invading  Ireland,  and  being  bent  on 
exterminating  the  Catholic  population  there,  persuaded  his 
soldiers,  that  they  had  a  divine  commission  for  ihis  purpose,  as 
the  Israelites  had  to  exterminate  the  Canaaiiites.||  To  make 
an  end  of  the  clergy,  he  put  the  same  price  upon  a  priest's  as 
upon  a  wolfs  head. If  Those  Puritans  who,  previously  to  the 
civil  war,  had  sailed  to  North  America,  to  avoid  persecution, 
set  up  a  far  more  cruel  one  there,  particularly  against  the  Qua- 
kers, whipping  them,  cropping  their  ears,  boring  their  tonguet 
with  a  hot  iron,  and  hanging  them.  We  have  the  names  of 
four  of  these  sufferers,  one  of  them  a  woman,  who  were  executed 
at  Boston.** 

IV.  The  Catholics  had  behaved  with  unparalleled  loyalty 
to  the  king  and  constitution,  during  the  whole  war  which  the 
Puritans  waged  against  these.  It  has  even  been  demonstrat- 
ed,ff  that  three-fifths  of  the  noblemen  and  gentlemen  who  lost 
their  lives  on  the  side  of  royalty,  were  Catholics,  and  that  more 
than  half  of  the  landed  property,  confiscated  by  the  rebels,  be- 


•  Leiand's  Hist,  of  Ireland,  vol.  ii.  p.  482.    Neal'a  Hist  vol.  ii.  p.  4C9. 

t  Hht.  of  Churches  of  Eng.  and  Scotl.  vol.  iii.  t  Ibid. 

^  Ibid.  Neal's  Hist. 

D  Anderson's  Royal  Geneal.  quoted  by  Curry,  vol.  ii.  p.  1 1. 

H  Ibid.  p.  63.  *♦  Ne'4J's  Hist,  of  Churches. 

tJ  Lord  Castlemain's  Catholic  Apology. 


318  Letter  XLIX. 

longed  to  the  Catholics;  add  tb'th^s,  that  they  were  chiefly  in- 
gtrumental  in  saving  Charles  II,  after  his  defeat  at  Worcester ; 
hence  there  was  reason  to  expect,  that  the  restoration  of  th« 
king  and  constitution,  would  have  brouf?htati  alleviation,  if  not 
an  end  of  their  sulierings  :  but  the  contrary  proved  to  be  the 
case  :  for  then  all  parties  seem  to  have  combined  to  make  them 
the  common  object  of  their  persecuting  spirit  and  fury.  In 
proof  of  tliis,  I  need  allege  nothing  more  than  that  two  diflerent 
parliaments  voted  the  reality  of  Oates's  Plot !  and  that  eighteen 
innocent  and  loyal  Catlioiics,  one  df  them  a  peer,  suffered  the 
death  6C  traitors,  on  account  of  it :  to  say  nothing  of  Seven 
other  priests,  who,  about  that  time,  were  hanged  and  quartered 
for  the  mere  exercise  oi  their  priestly  functions.  Among  the 
absurdities  of  that  sanguinary  plot,  such  as  those  oT  shooting 
the  king  with  silver  buliets,  and  iiivading  the  island  with  aa 
army  of  pilgrims  from  Compostella,  &lc.*  it  was  not  the  least 
to  pretend,  that  the  Catholics  wished  to  kill  the  king  at  all ; 
that  king  whom  they  had  heretofore  saved  in  Staffordshire,  and 
whom  they  well  knew  to  be  secretly  devoted  to  their  religion ; 
but  any  pretext  was  good  which  would  serve  the  purposes  of  a 
persecuting  faction.  These  purposes  were  to  exclude  Catholics 
not  only  Irom  the  throne,  but  also  from  the  siiiariest  degree  of 
political  power,  down  to  that  of  a  constable,  and  to  shut  the 
doors  of  both  houses  of  parliament  against  them.  The  factioi^ 
succeeded  in  its  first  design  by  the  Test  Act,  and  in  its  second, 
by  the  act  requiring  the  Declaration  against  Popery;  both  ob- 
tained at  a  [Jeriod  of  national  delirium  and  ftn-y.  What  the 
spirit  of  the  clergy  was,  at  that  time,  with  respect  to  the  op- 
pressed Catholics,  appeared  at  their  solemn  procession  at  sir 
Edmundbury  Godfrey's  funeral, f  and  still  appears  in  the  three 
folio  volinfieis  of  invejctive  and  misrepresentation  then  published, 
under  the  title  of  .^  Preservative  against;  Pop eri/.  Ori  the  oth»^r 
hand,  such  Was  the  unchristian  hatred  of  the  Dissenters  against 
the  CathoKcs,  that  they  promoted  the  Test  Act  with  all  their 
power, J  though  no  less  injurious  to  themselves  than  to  the  Ca- 
tholics;  and  on  every  occasion,  they  refused  a  toleration  which 
might  "extend  to  the  latter.^  There  is  no  need  of  bringing 
down  the  history  of  persecution  in  this  country  to  a  later  period 
than  the  revolution,  at  wiiich  time,  as  I  observed  before,  a  Ca- 
tholic king  was  deposed^  because  he  would  not  be  a  persecutor. 


»    Echard's  Hist.  t  North's  Exam.  Echard 

X  Neal's  Hist,  of  Puritans,  vol.  iv.     Hist  of  Churches,  voL  iii. 
«  Ibid. 


Letter  XLIX,  31 9 

Suffice  it  to  say,  that  the  number  of  penal  laws  ap^ainst  the  pro- 
fessors of  the  ancient  ""^ligion,  and  tbunders  of  the  constilution 
of  this  conntry,  continued  to  increase  in  every  rei^n,  till  that  of 
his  present  majesty.  In  tlic  course  of  this  rei^n  most  of  the 
old  persecuting  laws  have  been  repealed,  l^nt  the  two  lust  men- 
tioned, enacted  in  a  moment  of  delirium,  which  lluuie  repre- 
sents as  our  greatest  national  disgrace,  1  mean  the  impractica- 
ble Test  Act,  and  the  unintelligible  Declaration  against  Popery ^ 
are  rigidly  adhered  to  under  two  groundless  pretexts.  The 
first  of  these  is,  that  they  are  necessary  for  the  sujyjwrt  of  the 
established  church  :  and  yet  it  is  undeniable,  that  this  church 
had  maintained  its  ground,  and  had  flourished  much  more  du- 
ring the  period  which  preceded  these  laws,  than  it  has  ever 
done  since  that  event.  The  second  pretext  is,  that  the  with- 
holding of  honours  and  emoluments  is  not  iicrsecution.  On 
this  point,  let  a  Protestant  dignitary  of  first  rate  talents  be 
heard  :  "  We  agree,  that  persecution,  merely  for  conscience 
sake,  is  against  the  genius  of  the  gospel :  and  so  is  any  law  for 
depriving  men  of  their  natural  and  civil  rights,  which  they 
claim  as  men.  We  are  also  ready  to  allow,  that  the  smallest 
negative  discouragements,  for  uniformity's  sake,  are  so  many 
persecutions.  An  incapacity  by  law  for  any  man  to  be  made 
a  judge  or  a  colonel,  merely  on  point  of  conscience,  is  a  nega- 
tive discouragement,  and,  consequently,  a  real  persecution," 
&c.*  In  the  present  case,  however,  the  persecution  which  Ca- 
tholics sufier  from  the  disabilities  in  question,  does  not  consist 
so  much  in  their  being  deprived  of  those  common  privileges  aud 
advantages,  as  in  their  being  held  out  by  the  legislature,  as  un- 
worthy of  them,  and  thus  being  reduced  to  the  condition  of  an 
inferior  cast,  in  their  own  country,  the  country  of  freedom;  this 
they  deeply  feel,  and  cannot  help  feeling.  i 

V.  But  to  return  to  my  subject :  I  presume,  that  if  the  facts 
and  reflections,  which  I  have  seated  in  this  letter,  had  occurred 
to  the  R.  Rev.  prelates,  mentioned  at  the  beginning  of  it,  they 
would  have  lowered,  if  not  quite  altered,  their  tone  on  the  pre- 
sent subject :  the  bishop  of  London  would  not  have  charged 
Catholics  with  claiming  a  right  to  punish  those  whom  they  call 
heretics,  "  with  penalties,  imprisonment,  tortures,  and  death  : 
nor  would  the  bishop  of  Lincoln  have  laid  down  "  toleration 
as  a  mark  of  the  true  church,  and  as  a  principle,  recommended 
by  the  most  eminent  reformers  and  (Protestant)  divines.  At 
all  events,  I  promise  myself,  that  a  due  consideration  of  tbt 

♦  Dean  Swift's  works,  vol.  viii.  p.  56. 


320  Letter  XLIX. 

points  here  suggested,  will  efface  the  remaining  prejudices  of 
certain  persons  of  your  society  against  the  Catholic  church,  on 
the  score  of  her  alleged  "  spirit  of  persecution,  and  of  her  sup- 
posed claim  to  punish  the  errors  of  the  mind  with  fire  and 
sword."  They  must  have  seen,  that  she  does  not  claim,  but 
that,  in  her  very  general  councils,  she  has  disclaimed  all  power 
of  this  nature ;  and  that,  in  pronouncing  those  to  be  obstinate 
heretics,  whom  she  finds  to  be  such,  she  always  pleads  for 
mercy,  in  their  behalf,  when  they  are  liable  to  severe  punish- 
ment from  the  secular  power :  a  conduct  which  many  eminent 
Protestant  Churchmen,  were  far  from  imitating,  in  similar  cir- 
cumstances. They  must  have  seen,  moreover,  that,  if  perse- 
cuting laws  have  been  made  and  acted  upon  by  the  princes  and 
magistrates  in  many  Catholic  countries,  the  same  conduct  has 
been  uniformly  practised  in  every  country,  from  the  Alps  to 
the  Arctic  Circle,  in  which  Protestants,  of  any  description, 
have  acquired  the  power  of  so  doing.  But,  if,  after  all,  the 
friends  alluded  to,  should  not  admit  of  any  material  difference, 
on  one  side  or  the  other,  in  this  matter,  I  will  here  point  out 
to  them  two  discriminating  circumstances  of  such  weight,  as 
must,  at  once,  decide  the  question  about  persecution  in  disfa- 
vour of  Protestants^ 

In  the  first  place,  when  Catholic  states  and  princes  have  per- 
secuted Protestants,  it  was  done  in  favour  of  an  ancient  religion, 
which  had  been  established  in  their  country,  perhaps,  a  thou- 
sand or  fifteen  hundred  years,  and  which  had  long  preserved 
the  peace,  order,  and  morality  of  their  respective  subjects  ;  and 
when,  at  the  same  time,  they  clearly  saw,  that  any  attempt  to 
alter  this  religion  would,  unavoidably,  produce  incalculable  dis- 
orders, and  sanguinary  contests  among  them.  On  the  other 
hand,  Protestants,  every  where,  persecuted  in  behalf  of  new 
systems,  in  opposition  to  the  established  laws  of  the  church,  and 
of  the  respective  states.  Not  content  with  vindicating  their 
own  freedom  of  worship,  they  endeavoured,  in  each  country,  by 
persecution,  to  force  the  professors  of  the  old  religion  to  aban- 
don it  and  adopt  theirs  ;  and  they  acted  in  the  same  way  by 
their  fellow  Protestants,  who  had  adopied  opinions  different 
from  their  own.  In  many  countries,  where  Calvinism  got  a 
head,  as  in  Scotland,  in  Holland,  at  Geneva,  and  in  France, 
they  were  riotous  mobs,  which,  under  the  direction  of  their 
pastors,  rose  in  rebellion  against  their  lawful  princes,  and  hav- 
ing secured  their  independence,  proceeded  to  sanguinary  ex- 
tremities against  the  Catholics. 


Letter  L,  321 

In  the  second  place,  If  Catholic  states  and  princes  have  en- 
forced submission  to  their  church  by  persecution,  they  were 
fully  persuaded,  that  there  is  a  divine  authority  in  this  church 
to  decide  in  all  controversies  of  religion,  and  that  those  Chris- 
tians who  refuse  to  hear  her  voice,  when  she  pronounces  upon 
them,  are  obstinate  heretics.  But  on  what  ground  can  Pro- 
testants persecute  Christians  of  any  description  whatsoever? 
Their  grand  rule  and  fundamental  charter  is,  that  the  Scrip- 
tures were  given  by  God  for  every  man  to  interpret  them,  as  he 
judges  best.  If,  therefore,  when  I  hear  Christ  declarinp^,  Take 
ye  and  eat,  this  is  my  body,  I  believe  what  he  says;  with  what 
consistency  can  any  Protestants  require  me,  by  pains  or  penal- 
ties, to  swear  that  I  do  not  believe  it,  and  that  to  act  conform- 
ably with  this  persuasion  is  idolatry  ?  But  religious  persecu- 
tion, which  is  every  where  odious,  will  not  much  longer  find  re- 
fuge in  the  most  generous  of  nations  :  much  less  will  the  many 
victorious  arguments  which  demonstrate  the  true  cluirch  of 
Christ,  our  common  mother,  who  reclaimed  us  all  from  the 
barbarous  rites  of  Paganism,  be  defeated  by  the  calumnious 
outcry,  that  she  herself  is  a  bloody  Moloch,  that  requires  hu- 
maa  victims. 

I  am,  &c 

J.M. 


LETTER  L. 

To  the  FlilEKDLY  SOCIETY  of  NEW  COTTAGE, 

COXCLUSIOX. 
MY  FRIENDS  AND  BRETHREN  IN  CHRIST, 

Having,  at  length,  finished  the  task  you  imposed  upon  me, 
eight  months  ago,  in  my  several  letters  to  y^'''''''''^Y^P'''l' 
dent,  Mr.  Brown,  and  others  of  your  society,  1  address  this,  my 
concluding  letter,  to  you,  in  common,  as  a  slight  review  ot 
them.  I  observed  to  you,  that,  to  succeed  m  any  inqu.rs  it  is 
necessary  to  know  and  to  follow  the  right  method  of  making 
it:  hence,  I  entered  upon  the  present  i"^P«''t^"j.^^^^^^.^^f '^J  u' 
Uuths  of  the  Christian  Revelation,  with  \discussion  of  the 
rules  or  methods,  followed,  for  this  purpose,  by  ^;<[^^^"\5^^^^ 
of  Christians.     Having,  then,  taken  for  granted  the  following 

2  S 


322  Letter  L, 

maxims, — that  Christ  has  appointed  some  rule  or  method  of 
learning  his  revelation  ;  that  this  rule  must  be  an  unerring  one  ; 
and  that  it  must  be  adapted  to  the  capacities  and  situations  of 
mankind,  in  general ;  I  proceeded  to  show,  that  a  supposed  pri' 
vate  spirit  J  or  particular  inspiration,  is  not  that  rule  ;  because 
this  persuasion  has  led  numberless  fanatics,  in  every  age,  since 
that  of  Christ,  into  the  depths  of  error,  folly,  and  wickedness  of 
every  kind.  1  proved,  in  the  second  place,  that  the  written 
Word  or  Scripture,  according  to  each  one's  conception  of  its 
meaning,  is  not  that  rule ;  because  it  is  not  adapted  to  tlie  ca- 
pacity and  situation  of  the  bulk  of  mankind ;  a  great  propor- 
tion of  them  not  being  able  to  read  the  Scripture,  and  much 
less  to  form  a  connected  sense  of  a  single  chapter  of  it ;  and, 
because  innumerable  Christians,  at  all  times,  by  following  this 
presumptuous  method,  have  given  into  heresies,  impieties,  con- 
tradictions, and  crimes,  almost  as  numerous  and  iiagrant  as 
tnose  of  the  above  mentioned  fanatics.  Finally,  I  demonstra- 
ted, that  there  is  a  two-fold  word  of  God,  the  unwritten,  and 
the  written  ;  that  the  former  was  appointed  by  Christ,  and 
aiade  use  of  by  the  apostles,  for  converting  nations  ;  and  that 
it  was  not  made  void  by  the  inspired  Epistles  and  Gospels, 
which  some  of  the  apostles,  and  the  evangelists,  addressed,  for 
the  most  part,  to  particular  churches  or  individuals ;  that  the 
Catholic  church  is  the  divinely  commissioned  guardian  and  in- 
terpreter of  the  word  of  God,  in  both  its  parts  ;  and  that, 
therefore,  the  method,  appointed  by  Christ  for  learning  what 
he  has  taught,  on  the  various  articles  of  his  religion,  is  to 
HEAR  THE  CHURCH  propounding  them  to  us  from  the 
whole  of  his  rule.  This  method,  I  have  shown,  continued  to 
be  pointed  out  by  the  fathers  and  doctors  of  the  church,  in  con- 
stant succession,  and  that  it  is  the  only  one  which  is  adapted 
to  the  circumstances  of  mankind,  in  general ;  the  only  one, 
which  leads  to  the  peace  and  unity  of  the  Christian  church  ; 
and  the  only  one,  which  afibrds  tranquillity  and  security  to  in- 
dividual Clnistians  durijig  life,  and  at  the  trying  hour  of  their 
dissolution. 

At  this  point,  my  labours  might  have  ended  ;  as  the  Catholic 
church  alone  follows  tlie  right  rule,  and  the  right  rule  infallibly 
leads  to  the  Catholic  clii*  ch  :  but  since  bishop  Porteus,  and 
other  Protestant  contro\  erlists,  raise  cavils,  as  to  which  is  the 
true  clmrcli ;  and  whereas  this  is  a  question,  that  admits  of  a 
still  more  easy  and  more  triumphant  answer,  than  that  c(mcern- 
ing  the  right  rule  of  faith,^  1  have  made  this  the  subject  of  a 
second  series  of  letters,  with  which,  I  flatter  myself,  I'le  greater 


Letter  L  323 

part  of  you  are  unacquainted.  In  fact,  no  inquiry  is  so  easy,  to 
an  attentive  and  upright  Christian,  as  to  discover  which  is  the 
true  church  of  Christ ;  because,  on  one  hand,  all  Christians 
agree,  in  their  common  creeds,  concerning  the  characters  or 
marks,  which  she  bears  ;  and  because,  on  the  other  hand,  these 
marks  are  of  an  exterior  and  splendid  kind,  such  as  rtqiiire  no 
extensive  learning  or  abilities,  and  little  more  than  the  use  o( 
our  senses  and  common  reason,  to  discern  them.  In  short,  to 
ascertain  which,  among  the  numerous  and  jarring  societies  of 
Christians,  all  pretending  to  have  found  out  tiie  truths  of  Re- 
velation, is  the  true  church  of  Christ,  that  necessarily  possesses 
them,  we  have  only  to  observe  which  among  them  is  disiincti\e- 
ly,  ONE,  HOLY,  CATHOLIC,  and  APOSTOLICAL,  and 
the  discovery  is  made.  In  treating  of  these  characters,  or 
marks,  I  said  it  was  obvious  to  every  beholder,  that  there  is  no 
bond  of  union  w  hatever  among  the  different  societies  of  Protest- 
ants; and  that  no  articles,  canons,  oaths,  or  laws,  had  the  force 
of  confining  the  members  of  any  one  of  them,  as  experience 
shows,  to  a  uniformity  of  belief,  or  even  profession,  in  a  single 
kingdom  or  island  ;  while  the  great  Catholic  church,  spread, 
as  it  is  over  the  face  of  the  globe,  and  consisting,  as  it  does,  of 
all  nations,  and  tribes,  and  peoples,  and  tongues,  is  strictly  unit- 
ed together,  in  the  same  faith,  the  same  sacraments,  and  the 
same  church-government  -,  in  short,  that  it  demonstratively  ex- 
hibits the  first  mark  of  the  true  church,  unity. — With  respect  to 
the  second  mark,  sanctity,  I  showed,  that  she,  alone,  teaches  and 
enforces  the  whole  doctrine  of  the  gospel ;  that  she  is  the  mother 
of  all  the  saints,  acknowledged  as  such  by  Protestants  them- 
selves ;  that  she  possesses  many  means  of  attaining  sanctity, 
which  the  latter  disclaim  ;  and  that  God  himself  attests  the 
truth  of  this  church,  by  the  miracles  with  which,  from  time  to 
time,  he  illustrates  her  exclusively  :  and,  whereas  many  eminent 
Protestant  writers  have  charged  the  Catholics  with  deception 
and  forgery  on  this  head,  I  have  unanswerably  retorted  the 
charge  upon  themselves.  No  words  were  wanting  to  show, 
that  the  Catholic  church  bears  the  glorious  name  of  CATHO- 
LIC, and  very  few  to  demonstrate,  that  she  is  Cathcitc  or  uni- 
versal, with  respect  both  to  place  and  time,  and  thai  she  is  also 
apostolical.  The  latter  point,  however,  1  exliibited  in  a  more 
evident  and  sensible  manner,  by  means  of  the  sketch  ot  an 
apostolical  tree,  or  genealogical  table  of  the  church,  which  1 
sent  you  ;  showing  the  succession  of  her  pontifls,  her  most  emi- 
nent  bishops,  doctors  and  saints,  as  also,  of  the  "/-^jL""^""^^ 
heretics  and  schismatics,  who  have  been  lopped  off  from  this 


324  Letter  L. 

tree,  in  every  age  from  that  of  the  apostles  down  to  the  present 
age.  "  No  church,  but  the  Catholic,  can  exhibit  any  thing  of 
this  kind,"  as  Tertullian  reproached  the  seceders  of  his  time. 
Under  this  head,  you  must  have  observed,  in  particular,  the 
want  of  an  apostolical  succession  of  ministry,  which,  I  showed, 
all  Protestant  societies  labour  under,  and  their  want  of  success 
in  attempting  the  work  of  the  apostles,  the  conversion  of  Pagan 
nations. 

The  third  series  of  my  letters  has  beer  ^'w  cloyed  in  tearing 
off  the  hideous  mask,  with  which  calumny  and  misrepresentation 
had  disfigured  the  fair  face  of  Christ's  true  spouse,  the  Catho- 
lic church.  In  this  endeavour,  I  trust,  1  have  been  successful, 
and  that  there  is  not  one  of  your  society  who  will  any  more  re- 
proach Catholics  with  being  Idolaters,  on  account  of  their  re- 
spect for  the  memorials  of  Christ  and  his  saints,  or  of  their  de. 
siring  the  prayers  of  the  latter  ;  or  on  account  of  the  adoration 
they  pay  to  the  divine  Jesus,  hidden  behind  the  Sacramental 
veils:  nor  will  they,  hereafter,  accuse  us  of  purchasing,  or 
otherwise  procuring  leave  to  commit  sin,  or  the  previous  pardon 
of  sins,  to  be  committed  ;  or,  in  short,  of  perfidy,  sedition, 
cruelty,  or  systematic  wickedness  of  any  kind.  So  far  from 
this,  I  have  reason  to  hope,  that  the  view  of  the  church  herself 
which  I  have  exhibited  to  your  society,  instead  of  the  carica- 
ture of  her,  which  Dr.  Porteus,  and  other  bigoted  controvertists 
have  held  up  to  the  public,  has  produced  a  desire  in  several  of 
them  to  return  to  the  communion  of  this  original  church  ;  bear- 
ing, as  she  clearly  does,  all  the  marks  of  the  true  church  ; 
gifted,  as  she  manifestly  is,  with  so  many  helps  for  salvation  j 
and  possessing  the  only  safe  and  practicable  rule  for  ascertain- 
ing the  truths  of  Revelation.  The  consideration  which,  I  un- 
derstand, has  struck  some  of  them,  in  the  most  forcible  manner, 
is  that  which  I  suggested  from  my  own  knov\  ledge  and  experi- 
ence, as  well  as  from  the  observation  of  the  eminent  writers 
whom  I  named ;  namely,  that  no  Catholic,  at  the  near  approach 
of  death y  is  ever  found  desii'ous  of  dying  in  any  other  religion  j 
while  numbers  of  Protestants,  in  that  situation,  seek  to  he  recon- 
cihd  to  the  Catholic  religion. 

Some  of  your  number  have  said,  that,  though  they  are  of 
opinion  that  t^e  Catholic  religion  is  the  true  one,  yet  they  have 
not  that  evidence  of  the  fact,  which  they  think  sufiicient  to  jus- 
tify a  change  in  so  important  a  point  as  that  of  religion. — God 
forbid  that  I  should  advise  any  person  to  embrace  the  Catholic 
Teligion,  without  having  sufficient  evidence  of  its  truth :  but  I 
miut  remind  the  persons  in  question,  that  they  have  not  a  meta- 


Letter  L.  325 

physical  evidence,  or  a  mathematical  certainty  of  the  truth  of 
Christianity,  hi  general  ;  they  have  only  a  moral  e\  idnice,  and 
certainty  of  it :  with  all  the  miracles  and  otln^  arguments,  by 
which  Christ  and  his  apostles  proved  tliis  divine  sysn-m,  it  was 
still  a  stumbling  block  to  the  Jews,  and  folly  to  the  (tf  utiles,  I 
Cor.  i.  23  :  in  sliort,  there  is  light  enough  in  it  to  guide  the 
sincere  faithful,  and  obscurity  enough  to  mislead  the  perverse 
unbelievers,  according  to  the  observation  of  St.  Austin  ;  be- 
cause, after  all,  faith  is  not  merely,  a  divine  illustration  of  the 
miderstanding,  but  also,  a  divine,  and  yet  voluntary  motion  of 
the  will.  Hence,  if,  in  travelling  through  this  darksome  vale, 
as  Locke,  1  think,  observes  with  respect  to  Revelation  in  gene- 
ral, God  is  pleased  to  give  us  the  light  of  the  moon  or  of  the 
stars,  we  are  not  to  stand  still  on  our  journey,  because  he  does 
not  aflbrd  us  the  light  of  the  sun.  The  same  is  to  be  said,  with 
respect  to  the  evidence  in  favour  of  the  Catholic  religion  :  it  is 
moral  evidence  of  the  first  quality  ;  far  superior  to  that  on  which 
we  manage  our  teniporal  aflairs  and  guard  our  lives  ;  and  not, 
in  the  least,  below  that  which  exists  for  the  truth  of  Cln*istianity 
at  large. — At  all  events,  it  is  wise  to  choose  the  safer  part :  and 
it  would  be  madness  to  act  otherwise,  when  eternity  is  at  stake. 
The  great  advocates  of  Christianity,  SS.  Austin,  Pascal,  Ab- 
.adie,  and  others,  argue  thus,  in  reconnnending  it  to  us,  in  pre- 
ference to  infidelity  :  now,  the  same  argument  evidently  holds 
good,  for  preferring  the  Catholic  religion  to  every  Protestant 
system.  The  most  eminent  Protestant  divines,  such  as  Luther 
Melancthon,  Hooker,  Chillingworth,  with  the  bishops.  Laud, 
Taylor,  Sheldon,  Blanford,  and  the  modern  prelates.  Marsh 
and  Porteus  himself,  all  acknowledge,  that  salvation  may  be 
found  in  the  communion  of  the  original  Catholic  church:  but  no 
divine  of  this  church,  consistently  with  her  characterislical  uni- 
ty, and  the  constant  doctrine  of  the  holy  fathers  and  of  the 
Scripture  itself,  as  1  have  elsewhere  demonstrated,  can  allow, 
that  salvation  is  to  be  found  out  of  that  communion  ;  except  in 
the  case  of  invincible  ignorance. 

It  remains,  my  dear  friends  and  brethren,  for  each  of  you  to 
take  his  and  her  part  :  but  remember,  that  the  part  you  several- 
ly take,  is  taken  for  eternity  !  On  this  occasion,  therefore,  if 
ever  you  ought  to  do  so,  reilect  and  decide  seriously  and  con- 
scientiously, dismissing  all  worldly  respects,  of  whatever  kind, 
from  your  minds;  for  what  exchange  sliall  a  man  receive  for 
his  soul  !*  and  what  will  the  prejudiced  opinion  of  your  fellow 

♦  Mat.  \yL  20. 


326  Letter  L. 

mortals  avail  you  at  the  tribunal,  where  we  are  all  so  soon  to  ap- 
pear !  and  in  the  vast  abyss  of  eternity  in  which  we  shall  quick- 
ly be  all  ingulfed !  Will  any  of  them  plead  your  cause  at  that 
bar?  And  will  your  punishment  be  more  tolerable  from  their 
sharing  in  it  f  Finally,  beseech  your  future  judge,  who  is  now 
your  merciful  Saviour,  with  all  the  fervour  and  sincerity  of 
your  souls,  to  bestow  upon  you  the  light  to  see  your  way,  and 
the  strength  to  follow  it,  which  he  merited  for  you,  when  he 
hung,  for  three  hours,  your  agonizing  victim,  on  the  cross. 

Adieu,  my  dear  friends  and  brethren,  we  shall  soon  meet  to- 
gether at  the  tribunal  1  have  mentioned ;  and  be  assured,  that 
I  look  forward  to  that  meeting  with  a  perfect  confidence,  that 
you  and  I,  and  the  Great  Judge  himsellj  will  then  approve,  in 
rommon,  of  the  advice  1  now  give  you. 

I  am^  he 

J.M 

W ^,JVfaj/29,  1802. 


A 

POSTSCRIPT 

TO   THE    SECOND    EDITION   OF   TH« 

ADDRESS 

TO   THE 

RIGHT  REV.  LORD  BISHOP  OF  ST.  DAVID'S, 

OCCASIONED    BY    HIS    LORDSHlp's 

«ONE  WORD  TO  THE  REV.  DR.  MILNER.» 


My  Lord, 

Should  a  grave  and  dignified  author  be  found  unsettled  in 
his  opinions,  and  contradictory  in  his  assertions,  he  would  un- 
avoidably puzzle  his  readers  to  make  out  his  meaning,  and  dis- 
tress his  literary  opponents  to  preserve  a  due  respect  towards 
him  ;  but  much  more  so,  should  such  a  venerable  character  de- 
scend to  the  regions  of  burlesque  and  of  ridiculous  absurdity. 

In  the  course  of  last  summer,  the  Riij:ht  Reverend  Hishop  of 
St.  David's  published,  what  he  called,  THI-:  PROTEST- 
ANT'S CATECHISM,  a  work  professedly  intended,  not  only 
to  defeat  the  claims  of  them  Catholics  to  more  e\t«'nsive  reli- 
gious and  civil  freedom,  but  also  to  deprive  them  of  that  por- 
tion of  it  which  they  actually  enjoy.  Among  the  otli»'r  articles, 
announced  in  The  Table  of  Contents,  at  the  head  of  this  work, 
is  the  following :  '  Section  the  24th  :  Means  of  co-operating 
with  the  laws  for  preventing  the  danger  and  increase  of  Po- 
pery'.— From  this  and  other  passages  in  his  Lordship's  work, 
we  had  too  much  reason  to  fear,  that  he  was  disposed  to  vote 
for  and  promote,  to  the  utmost  of  his  power,  the  re-enactment 
of  Elizabeth's  sanguinary  Statutes  against  us  :  wlii«  h  fear  was 
augmented  by  his  twice  quoting  the  followintr  awful  words  Irom 
Iriilton's  prose  works  :  '  Popery,  as  being  idolatrous,  is  not  to 
t^  tolerated^  either  in  public  or  iu  private;  it  must  now  be 


328  Postscript 

thought  how  to  remove  it,  and  hinder  the  growth  thereof.     If 
they  say  that,  by  removing  thpir  idols,  we  violate  their  con- 
sciences, we  have  no  warrant  to  regard  conscience,  which  is  not 
grounded  on  Scripture.'    The  adoption  of  these  intolerant  sen- 
timents by  a  Lord  of  Parliament  naturally   alarmed  us,  not 
barely  for  our  own  lives,   that  is    to   say,    for    those  of  five 
millions  of  his  Majesty's  European  subjects,  who,  though  they 
are  not  idolaters,  yet  pass  for  such  in  his  Lordship's  eyes,  but 
also  for  the  lives  of  fifty  more  millions  of  his  Majesty's  sub- 
jects in  Asia,  Africa  and  America,  who  are,  in  the  strict  sense 
of  the  word,  idolaters.     Accordingly,  when  I  had    read   the 
Contents  of  the  Catechism,  I  hastily  turned  over  the  leaves  oi 
it  to  page  54,  where  these  Contents  had  informed  me  I  should 
find  the  means  in  question,  that  is  to  say,  the  precise  nature 
and  extent  of  the  religious  persecution  with  which  the  Bishop 
of  St.  David's  threatens  us.   But  instead  of  finding  these,  I  met 
tJie  following  note  :  '  The  means  of  co-operating  with  the  laws 
for  preventing  the  danger  and  increase  of  Popery,  intended  for 
the  Conclusion,  as  noticed  in  The  Table  of  Contents,  being  in- 
timately connected  with  the  credit  and  usefulness  of  our  Ecclesi- 
astical establishment,  as  I  conceive,  but  admitting  a  difference 
of  opinion,  are  omitted  for  further  consideration.'     Now,  my 
Lord,  I  appeal  to  your  Lordship's  knowledge  of  literature, 
whether  another  author  can  be  named,  who  in  the  same  work 
exhibits  such  an  opposition  of  sentiment  and  language,  as  this 
Prelate  does  in  his  Catechism  ^    In  a  word,  can  either  his  read- 
ers or  his  critics  pay  any  serious  attention  to  what  he  writes, 
when  it  is  evident  that  he  has  not  made  up  his  mind,  and  con- 
tradicts himself  concerning  it  f 

Soon  after  the  appearance  of  this  Catechism,  its  Right  Rev. 
Author  advertised,  at  the  head  of  the  Gentleman^s  Magazine,  a 
new  work,  as  being  then  actually  in  the  press,  under  the  title  of 
THE  GRAND   SCHISM.    Being  then  engaged  in  answering 
the  Catechism,  I  own,  I  hailed  this  promise  of  fresh  paradoxes, 
to   support  those  which   I  was  refuting ;  for  I  was  perfectly 
aware  tliat  the  farther  his  Lordship  advanced  in  the  thorny  and 
miry  lane,  in  wliich  he  was  resolved  to  walk,  the  more  he  would 
get  entangled  in  contradictions,   and  the  deeper  he  would  sink 
into  absurdity.     Accordingly,   month  after  month,  I  inquired 
of  all  his  publishers  for  The  Bishop  of  St.  David's  GRAJVD 
SCHISM :  but  none  of  tliem  had  heard  a  word  about  it.     In 
the  end,  it  appeared  that  his  Lordship  had  changed  his  mind 
about  this  publication  also  :  but,  whether  *  for  the  credit  and 
usefulness  of  the  Establishment,'  or  his  own,  he  best  knows. 


Postscript.  3^ 

Hitherto  the  Prelate  had  not,  to  my  knowledge,  taken  any  public 
notice  of  my  End  to  Controversy^  or  of  my  Address  to  liiiii,  at 
the  beginning  of  it ;  but,  meeting  soon  after  witli  The  Protest'  * 
ant  Advocate^s  Retrospect  for  October,  I  found  them  both  men- 
tioned by  his  lordsliip,  or  by  some  one  else,  who  professed  to 
know  his  mind,  and  who  was  evidently  imbued  witii  his  bigot- 
ted  notions,  in  the  following  manner.     Speaking  of  this  cluj 
d^cBuvre,  as  the  Prelate  or  his  intimate  friend  sarcastically  calls 
tlie  present  work,  he  says  :  '  The  address  is  made  to  the  Bishop 
of  St.  David's  in  a  style  of  peculiar  acrimony  and  insolence^ 
assuredly  intended  to  prevent  that  most  estimable  and  learned 
Prelate  from  descending  to  notice  such  an  arrogant  writer. 
Then  he  will  cry   Victory,  and  his  partizans  will  re-echo  the 
exclamation,  and  will  attribute  to  their  arguments  what  is  due 
only  to  their  insolence.'     Now,  my  Lord,  as  I  know  that  this 
is  not  the  general  character  of  my  publication,  and,  otherwise, 
as  I  feel  that  no  language  can  be  too  strong  in  arguing  with 
any  man  who  himself  lias  the  huolence  to  tell  me  that  I  am  a 
traitor  and  an  idolater,  when  I  know  and  have  demonstrated 
the  contrary,  I  consider  the  passage  1  have  quoted,  as  an  apo- 
logy for  the  prelate's  declining  to  meet  me  in  the  field  of  argu- 
ment; and  such  1  believe  to  have  been  his  intention,  till  very 
lately,  when   he   ao^ain  changed   his  mind,  and  put  forth  his 
THREE     WORDS      ON     GENERAL    THORNTON'S 
SPEECH,    AND    ONE    WORD    ON    DOCTOR    MIL- 
NER'S    END    OF    CONTROVERSY:    which  work  itself 
betrays  the  greatest  unsteadiness  and  inconsistency  in  its  au- 
thor.    In  fact,  THE  THREE  WORDS  take  up  nine  octavo 
pages,  and  the  ONE  WORD  fourteen  !    It  is  true,  the  Prelate 
excuses  himself  for    '  expanding,'    as   he  calls    it,   his    ONE 
WORD :  but  could  he  not,  while  the  manuscript  w  as  iu  his 
possession,  have  made  his  title  accord  w  ith  his  work  ;  as,  in  a 
former  instance,  he  might  have  made  his  Table  of  Contents 
agree  with  the  Sections  of  his  Catechism ! 

But,  after  all,  such  instances  of  fickleness,  are  not  calculated 
to  raise  more  than  a  smile  at  any  grave  and  venerable  charac- 
ter, who  might  exhibit  them;  but,  should  such  a  character, 
with  a  mitre  on  his  head,  and  a  Catechism  in  his  hand,  begin 
an  Episcopal  lecture  with  the  travest\  or  burlesque  of  an  im- 
moral sentiment,  borrowed  from  a  loose  poet,^  and  should  we 

♦  The  motto  of  the  Bishop's  last  theological  lecture  is  the  foUowing : 
'  Let  him  write  now  who  never  wrote  before  :  ^ 

•  Let  those,  who  always  wrote,  now  write  the  more.— Trot.  .Inon. ^ 

These  Unes  are  burlesqued  from  the  following,  which  are  inscribed  on  U.c  Temp* 


9S0  Postscript 

hear  him  venting,  with  oracular  sententiousness  and  solemnity, 
a  great  number  of  whimsical  falsehoods  and  glaring  contradic- 
tions ;  what  educated  man  or  woman  could  refrain  from  laugh- 
ing in  his  face  ?  Indeed  who  could  suppose  that  such  a  per- 
sonage meant  any  thing  else  but  to  be  laughed  at  ?  Now,  my 
Lord,  has  not  the  Public  lately  witnessed  the  verification  of 
this  supposition  ?  In  fact,  what  ether  lectures  does  this  bur- 
lesquing Prelate,  alluded  to,  deliver,  as  a  system  of  religious 
instructions  to  the  ignorant  Welsh  Jumpers,  English  Methodists, 
Baptists,  Independents,  he.  but  these:  I  bring  you  here,  good 
people,  a  new  Catechism,  and  Three  Words  and  One  Word 
more,  in  defence  of  it,  which  I  have  just  composed  for  your  com- 
mon use.  This  Catechism  will  not  perplex  you  with  any  articles 
of  belief,  concerning  God,  or  Christ,  or  Redemption,  or  Grace; 
nor  will  it  incommode  you  with  any  ordinances  of  the  Command- 
ments, the  Sacraments,  the  love  of  God  and  man,  and  the  like :  it 
requires  nothing  of  you  but  to  adhere  to  your  common  Protest^ 
ancy ;  which  essentially  consists  in  two  points  ;  first,  in  '  the  ah- 
juration  of  Popery  and  the  exclusion  of  Papists  from  all  power, 
ecclesiastical  or  civil  :'*  and  secondly,  in  *  holding  that  the  wor- 
ship of  the  Church  of  Rome  is  idolatrous :  for  they,  who  do  not 
hold  this  latter  doctrine,  are  not  Protestants,  wjiatever  they  may 
profess  to  be.^f  You  have  hitherto  believed  that  the  Catholics 
(as  all  the  world  calls  them,  but  whom  I  call  Papists)  existed  be- 
fore the  Protestants,  and,  unfortunately,  all  writers  of  all  coun- 
tries, ancient  and  modern,  have  combined  to  propagate  this  false 
opinion  ;  but  I,  the  present  Bishop  of  St.  David's,  assure  you, 
upon  my  own  authority,  that  '  the  Catholics  are  not  our  elder 
hut  our  younger  brothers  :'f  that  '  their  Religion,  consisting,  a^ 
it  does,  in  acknowledging  the  Pope^s  supremacy^  is  a  novelty  oj 
the  seventh  cew^Mry.'||    Hence  you  clearly  see  that  the  Protestants 

of  Venus,  in  certain  celebmiuu  gaiueua,  and  uic  uurrowed  from  the  PervigUiwOl 
Veneris,  ascribed  to  Catullus: 

'  Cras  amet,  qui  nunquam  amavit: 
'  Quique  amavit,  cras  amet.' 
See  the  translation  of  this  distich  in  Parnel's  Poems. 

♦  Prot.  Catech.  p.  12. 

t  Ibid.  p.  46. 

t  THREE  WORDS,  p.  17. 

\  Catech.  p.  11. 

U  Ibid.  p.  14. — N.  B.  This  learned  Prelate,  contradicting  himself,  says  in  another 
page  of  his  Catechism,  p.  22,  that '  the  Papal  domination  did  not  exist  before  the 
time  of  Hildebrand,  whom  he  calls  Clement  VII.  in  the  eleventh  century.'  Now, 
•we  have  hitherto  been  taught  that  Clement  VII.  was  not  chosen  Pope  till  the 

{rear  1523,  and  that  he  was  the  Pope  who  refused  to  divorce  Henry  VIII.  from  his 
awful  wif«»,  and  thus  gave  occasion  to  the  English  schism !  What  a  system  of 
new  lightjj  is  this  ProtestanVt  Catechism  t 


iwt 


Postscript. 

abjured  Popery  and  excluded  the  Papists  from  all  power,  s^ 
hundred  years  before  Popery  was  invented :  you  see,  moreover, 
that  all  their  Popes,  to  the  number  of  sixty-sijc,  who  lived  during 
those  ages,  and,  among  the  rest,  Gregory  the  Great,  '  the  most 
learned  and  virtuous  of  the  Roman  Popes,'*  whose  missionariet 
converted  our  ancestors  from  Paganism,  were  all  Protestants. 
Bui,  though  Gregory  himself  was  a  Protestant,  and  '  reprobated 
the  si!premacy,'-f  yet,  his  missionary,  Avgustin,  and  his  other 
Pupal  envoys,  laboured  to  bring  over  our^British  and  Irish  Bi- 
shops to  submit  to  his  supremacy,  that  is,  to  embrace  Popery  /J 
You  arc  further  to  learn  that,  although  Popery  is  essentially 
Idolatry,  it  did  not  become  a  schism  till  the  sixteenth  century  ! 
*  Happy  would  it  be  if  their  (the  Catholics)  eyes  could  be  opew 
ed  to  the  false  foundations  of  a  foreign  jurisdiction,  which  led  to 
that  most  unnational  schism  of  the  sixteenth  century,  aiid  could 
be  induced  to  repair  the  evils  of  their  past  defection,  by  return- 
ing to  the  bosom  of  their  Mother  Church  in  England  and  Ire- 
land /'§ But,  alas  !  these  '  Catholics  separated  from  their 

Mother    Church,    and   this  separation    was    THE  GRAJVD 

SCHISM  of  the  sixteenth  century. '|| Such,  my  Lord,  are 

the  humorous  self-confuting  lectures  which  this  good-natured 
Bishop  puts  on  his  Mitre  to  deliver  to  us  in  his  Protestant's 
Catechism;  and  which,  besides  the  amusement  they  a/lbrd  us, 
inform  us  of  what  I  so  much  wanted  to  learn,  namely,  at  what 
period  the  Prelate  dates  the  defection  of  Catholics  from  the 
Protestant  Church,  and  the  commencement  of  his  Grand 
Schism.  It  is  probable,  however,  that  some  difficulties  which 
he  met  with  in  bringing  the  reigns  of  Queen  Mary  and  Oliver 
Cromwell  in  England,  as  well  as  that  of  Francis  1.  in  France, 
and  of  Philip  II.  in  Holland,  into  his  system,  caused  him  to 
give  up  his  promised  work  on  the  Grayid  Schism,  in  despair. 

In  proof,  however,  that  his  Lordship  was  serious  when  he 
published  his  Catechism,  he  oflers  diflerent  pleas  in  his  Three 
fVords,  and  One  Word.  He  says,  in  the  first  place  :  Mf  I 
taught  nothing  about  God,  or  Christ,  or  the  commandments,  in 
my  Catechism,  Dr.  M.  may  see  these  subjects  treated  in  some 
of  my  other  works. 'IT  To  this  I  answer,  very  possibly  tlu3 
may  be  the  case;  still,  a  Bishop's  Catechism,  which  contains 
not  a  word  of  Christian  doctrine  or  practice,  and  which  teachei 

*  Catech.  p.  16.  ,    «  ^. 

t  Ibid.  :  Catech.  P.  24. 

^  Three  Words,  Advertisem.  p.  iv. 

H  Ibid.  p.  16.  ,   ,,>. 

H  Tliree  Words,  Adrertisem.  p.  19. 


Postscript, 

nothing  but  Intolerance  and  persecution,  is  an  unexampled  phe- 
nomenon in  Christianity. — Besides  this,  I  may  say,  that  I  have 
applied  at  the  shops  of  all  the  Bishop's  publishers  to  pur- 
chase some  of  his  best  publications,  and  at  the  shop  in 
the  Strand,  No.  107,  barely  to  get  a  sight  of  them,  without 
success.  The  Prelate  adds,  *  There  is,  at  least,  one  great  moral 
and  practical  lesson  inculcated  in  the  Protestant's  Catechism, 
which  Dr.  M.  has  overlooked,  though  taught  by  St.  Peter  him- 
self, namely,  submission  to  the  king's  entire  sovereignty.'* — 
And  does  the  Right  Rev.  Author  of  the  Catechism  allege 
this,  in  proof  of  his  seriousness  in  composing  and  publishing  it, 
which,  if  it  means  any  thing,  evidently  means  that  we  are  al- 
ways to  submit  the  business  of  Religion  to  the  supreme  power 
of  the  state,  whether  Christian,  Jewish,  or  Pagan  !  In  fact, 
did  St.  Peter  so  submit,  when  lie  answered  the  MogistraieSy 
who  had  forbidden  him  and  his  fellow  Apostles  to  preach  the 
name  of  Christ :  We  ought  to  obey  God  rather  than  men,  Acts 
V.  29.  ?  And  if  the  fii'st  Protestants  had  adopted  this  doctrine, 
may  we  not  presume,  that  the  Bishop  of  St.  David's  would  be 
found,  at  the  present  day,  delivering  lectures  of  an  opposite 
tenour  to  those  contained  in  liis  Protestant's  Catechism  ^ 

But  the  Prelate  advances  in  his  career,  so  far  as  to  say* 
*  The  six  and  thirty  pages  addressed  to  the  author  of  the  Pro- 
testant's Catechism,  afford  no  answer  to  that  Catechism,  and 
invalidate  none  of  his  positions.'! — Heu  prisca  jidcs  !  Heu  Can- 
dida Veritas !  whither  are  you  fled,  when  a  Christian  Bishop, 
professing  '  to  follow  truth,  whithersoever  she  leads,  in  the  ut- 
most sincerity  and  ardour  of  his  soul, 'J  with  the  Protestant 
Catechism  in  one  hand,  and  the  M dress  to  the  Bishop  of  St. 
David^s  in  the  other,  can  deliberately  affirm,  that  the  latter 
work  is  no  answer  to  the  former,  and  that  it  does  not  so  much 
as  invalidate  its  positions  '     Is  it  then  no  answer  to  his  loose 
conjectures  concerning  St.  Paul's  having  visited  Britain,  and 
his  still  more  groundless  assertion  of  St.  Paul  having  converted 
its  inhabitants,  to  refer  to  the  positive  testimony  of  all  the  ori- 
ginal writers  of  our  history,  British,  Saxon,  Roman,  and  Gallic, 
in  proof  that  the  Britons  were  generally  converted  by  Fuga- 
tius  and  Duvianus,  legates  of  PopeEIeutherius,in  the  second 
century  ? — Does  it  not  invalidate  his  positions  to  trace  a  suc- 
cession of  communications  with,  and  of  submission  to,  the  See 
ofRome,  on  the  part  of  the  British  Bishops,  by  their  frequent- 
ing her  synods  and  receiving  her  legates,  and  to  demonstrate, 

♦  P.  20.  t  P.  15.  I  P.  20. 


Postscript.  339 

that  even  the  Prelate's  own  predecessor  in  the  See  of  St.  Da- 
vid's, and  his  favourite  author  Ciraldus  Camhreiisis,  claimed 
before  the  Pope  himseh*,  in  the  twelftli  century,  to  have  Icj^^atinc 
jurisdiction  throughout  Wales,  by  the  grant  of  St.  C'crruauus, 
one  of  these  Papal  envoys  ! — Are  not  his  positions  invalidated 
by  the  evidence  1  have  brought  from  aiitlicntic  documents,  and 
acknowledged  by  Usher  himself,  that  the  Irish  and  Anglo-Saxon 
Christians  were  equally  indebted,  for  their  conversion,  to  the 
Popes  ;  the  former  to  Pope  Celestine,  the  latter  to  Popp  Gre- 
gory the  Great;  and  that  they  ever  continued  united  \NiiJi  the 
See  of  Rome  in  the  belief  of  Purgatory,  the  Invocation  of 
Saints,  the  sacrifice  of  the  Mass,  Transubstantiation,  and  the 
Pope's  Supremacy.^  Have  I  not  shaken  his  system,  when  1 
evinced,  in  particular,  that  every  one  of  our  Primates,  from  St. 
Augustin,  in  the  sixth  century,  down  to  Cranmer,  in  tlie  six- 
teenth, received  his  confirmation  or  institution  [from  which 
alone  he  derives  his  Archiepiscopal  jurisdiction,]  by  a  Special 
grant  of  the  Fope^ — Should  the  Right  Rev.  Prelate,  after  this, 
signify,  in  my  hearing,  that  I  have  not  sufficiently  an:-;wered 
him,  he  will  not  find  me  backward  in  so  doing. 

But,  it  seems,  the  work  itself  was,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Pre- 
late to  whom  the  Address  is  made,  answered  a  century  before 
it  was  written.  In  fact,  he  says  :  '  In  this  elaborate  correspond- 
ence, though  not  without  its  interest  of  learning  ?nd  research, 
there  is  nothing  material  advanced  in  defence  of  Popery,  to 
which  the  reader  will  not  find  an  answer  in  Bishop  BulFs  Let- 
ters to  Bossuet,  and  S/^ith's  Errors  of  the  Church  ff  Home  de- 
tected.^^  Bull,  who  was  Bishop  of  St.  David's  at  the  beginning 
of  the  last  century,  was  certainly  an  able  and  learned  divine, 
and  drove  his  Arian  adversaries  before  him  ;  but,  after  this, 
levelling  his  horns  at  the  rock  of  St.  Peter,  they  were  broken 
short  by  a  Catholic  Divine  of  equal  talents  and  superior  learn- 
ing. Dr.  Edward  Hawarden,  S.  T.  P.f  Smith,  of  Dover,  was 
one  of  those  wretched  Priests,  who,  wanting  the  grace  necessary 
for  living  up  to  the  strictness  of  their  obligations,  have  attempt- 
ed to  excuse  their  breach  of  them,  by  abusing  the  Church' 
which  imposes  them  upon  them.  His  puny  embryo  was  stifled 
in  the  birth,  and  he  himself,  soon  after  his  fall,  met  witii  that 
awful  end,  which  has  been  the  general  fate,  within  our  own  me- 
mory, of  this  class  oUonvcrts.X  as  the  Prelate  calls  them.  J  But, 

♦  p.  14^  t  See  Preface  to  his  True  Church  of  Christ,  vol.  ii.    "• 

t  Dean  Swift  used  to  say  of  such  '  converts  from  Popery ;'  /  wish,  ichai  the  Pcft 
needs  his  garden,  he  would  not  thraic  his  nettles  over  our  uall 

§  Smith  dropped  down  dead  in  Canterbury  Cathedral,  about  the  year  17W. 


3S4  Postscript. 

my  Lord,  as  that  auamantine  chain  of  demonstration,  which 
encircles  the  three  parts  of  the  work  in  question,  was  not  bro- 
ken before  it  was  knit  together,  so  it  never  will  be  broken,  till 
the  Gates  of  Hell  prevail  against  the  Church  of  Christ. 

The  Right  Rev.  Author  evidently  flatters  himself  that,  at  all 
events,  he  has  solved  three  of  the  enigmas,  or  paradoxes,  which 
I  had  pointed  out  in  his  Catechism  :  nevertheless,  they  still  are 
as  fast  closed  as  ever.  For  is  it  not  evident,  that  Religion^  of 
no  description  whatever,  excludes  any  man  from  Parlia- 
ment, except  the  Catholic  ?  Did  not  Lord  George  Gordon,  a 
M.  P.  profess  himself  a  Jew,  wear  a  beard  about  a  foot  long, 
and  die  in  the  embraces  of  a  Jewish  harlot  ?  Did  not  Edward 
Wortley  Montague,  another  M.  P.  believing  himself  to  be  the 
son  of  the  Great  Turk,  declare  himself  a  Mahometan?  And 
those  our  civil  and  military  officers,  who,  in  the  island  of  Cey- 
lon, a  few  years  ago,  joined  in  the  public  worship  of  Budho, 
the  brother  idol  of  the  blood-stained  Jaggernaut,  are  they  ex- 
cluded from  Parliament  on  this  account  ^ — As  to  '  the  inviola- 
ble covenants  of  the  two  unions,'  which  the  Prelate  maintains, 
must  ever  exclude  Catholics  from  all  power  :  it  is  still  matter 
of  demonstration  that  one  of  them,  which,  according  to  him,  has 
been  violated  more  than  once,  does  not  so  much  as  allude 
to  them  ;  and  that  the  other  alludes  to  them  for  the  express 
purpose  of  acknowledging,  that  they  may  be  admitted  into 
Parliament ! — As  to  his  third  parodox,  it  suffices  to  say,  that 
its  Right  Rev.  Author  still  maintains  that  his  Majesty  cannot 
lawfully  accept  of  The  Veto,  and  yet  that  we  violate  our  alle- 

About  the  same  time  an  unprincipled  priest  of  Staffordshire,  of  the  name  of  Tay- 
ler,  met  with  the  same  awful  fate  in  stepping  into  a  stage  coach.  Another  still 
more  unprincipled  priest,  who  chose  to  incur  excommunication,  and  who  even 
denied  the  inspiration  of  Scripture,  Dr.  Geddes,  used  to  send  for  the  helps  of  the 
Church  when  he  was  sick,  and  to  laugh  at  them  when  he  recovered.  At  last  a 
priest  actually  coming  to  reconcile  him  to  God  and  the  Church,  found  that  he  had 
unexpectedly  expired.  Lewis  of  Leominster,  having  sent  his  concubine  to  bring 
up  his  breakfast  to  his  bed,  was  found  a  corpse  by  her.  Holmes  of  Essex,  and 
Kogers,  alias  Rozier,  of  Birmingham,  who  the  evening  before  ailed  notliing,  were 
found  in  the  morning  breathless,  James  Quesnel  and  James  Nolan,  having  both 
been  warned  by  their  friends,  to  my  certain  knowledge,  of  the  fate  they  might  ex« 
pect,  but  continuing  to  waver  about  returning  to  their  duty,  dropped  down  dea(J 
in  the  streets,  the  former  at  Worcester,  the  latter  in  London.  My  townsman,  Bil- 
Unge,  finding  himself  summoned  away,  sunk  into  despair,  starting  continually,  and 
exclaiming:  '  I  am  a  lost  man!  I  am  a  lost  mayi !  I  dream  of  notliing  but  of  hell- 
fire!'  How  unlike  the  end  of  his  confrere,  Austin  Jennison,  who  having  been 
•truck  dumb  by  his  conscience,  in  the  pulpit,  which  so  ill  became  him,  hurried  th« 
same  day  from  his  living,  near  Edinburgh,  his  pretended  wife  and  property,  first  t» 
London  and  thence  into  France,  about  the  year  1788,  where  he  died  hi  penanci 
and  peace.  Doran  blew  out  his  brains,  near  Newbury.  A  detailed  history  of  the 
converts  to,  and  apostates  from,  the  Catholic  Churcli,  in  this  kingdom,  since  tho 
defectioaof  Henry  VIIL  would  form  a  most  interesting  and  usefiU  work. 


Postscript,  331 

glance,  by  not  conferring  it  upon  him  !  Thus,  according  to  the 
Prelate,  we  are  traitors  for  not  committing  an  unlawful  act ! 

Thus  much  I  have  said,  in  answer  to  the  Prelate's  ONE 
WORD  to  me,  which  word,  however,  is  seen  to  embrace  so 
greai  a  variety  of  subjects!  With  respect  to  his  Lordship'f 
THREE  WORDS  to  General  Thornton,  they  are  confined  to 
The  Declaration,  by  which  every  Member  of  Parliament  is  re- 
quired to  swear — not  his  belief  in  the  Articles  of  the  Church  of 
England  ; — nor  in  the  truth  of  Christianity  ; — nor  in  the  ex- 
istence of  God — but  that  '  the  invocation  of  any  Saint,  and 
the  Sacrament,  (as  it  is  ignorantly  termed  of  the  Mass)  as  they 
are  now  used  in  the  Church  of  Rome,  are  superstitious  and 
idolatrous.'  Thus  we  see  that  a  M.  P.  may  invoke  the  Devil 
to  take  away  his  own  soul  or  that  of  his  neighbour,  and 
may  proclaim  that  the  Mass,  as  used  by  the  RussianSy 
Greeks,  and  many  other  sects,  believing  in  Transubstantia- 
tion,  is  holy  and  salutary,  and  still  kt-ep  his  seat ;  provided 
he  swear  that  these  self-same  things,  as  used  by  Catholics, 
are  idolatrous  !  Gracious  heaven  !  was  ever  such  a  quahfication 
for  legislating  devised  or  thought  of  by  any  human  beings,  ex- 
cept by  the  last  Parliament  of  Charles  11.  !  If  history  had 
been  quite  silent  on  the  subject,  would  not  the  Act  itself  prove 
that  the  Parliament  and  tlie  nation  were  in  a  crisis  of  frenzy 
when  it  was  passed  ?  In  fact,  history  does  inform  us,  that 
they  both  were  then  worked  up,  by  an  unprincipled  hypocrite, 
who  was  brought  up  a  rebel  and  died  a  regicide  assassin,*  [as- 
sisted by  the  perjury  of  an  unnatural  monster, ]f  to  believe 
that  the  Catholics,  who  had  saved  the  King's  life  in  their 
Priests'  hiding-holes,  when  he  was  a  Protestant,  at  the  ri>k  of 
their  own  lives,  and  when  they  might  have  gained  £100,000 
by  betraying  him,  liad  plotted,  now  that  he  was  a  Calliolic,  to 
murder  him,  by  stabbing  him,  by  poisoning  him,  and  by  shoot- 
ing him  with  silver  bullets,  and  afterwards  to  bring  over  .30,000 
pilgrims,  armed  with  black  bill-hooks,  from  St.  Jauo  in  Spain, 
to  overturn  the  government !  History  tells  us,  moreover,  that, 
on  the  credit  of  this  plot,  near  20  Catholics  were  actually 
hanged  and  quartered,  and  all  their  nobility  confined  in  prison! 
1  have  spoken  of  our  ancestors,  1  now  speak  of  our  pos- 
terity, concerning  whom  I  will  confidently  affirm,  that  if  any 
thing  will  equal  their  astonishment,  that  so  unjust,  false,  mah- 
cious,  and  absurd  an  Act,  as  that  containing  the  Drrlaratioiiy 
should  have  passed  through  the  Houses  in  the  ITth  century, 

*  Lord  Shaflsbury  t  Dr.  Tims  Oatet 


^36  Postscript, 

and  this  under  the  hypocritical  pretext  of  *  An  Act  for  the  bet- 
ter preservation  of  his  Majesty's  person  and  Government,'  •• 
will  be  that  the  same  Act,  and  under  the  same  hypocritica* 
title,  should  have  remained  unrepealed  till  the  present  period  in 
the  nineteenth  century.  And  yet  it  does  stand  unrepealed  at  the 
present  hour, — a  signal  monument  of  the  religious  and  moral 
integrity  of  the  Catholics,  in  still  refusing  to  purchase  honours 
and  emoluments  at  the  expense  of  a  false  oath,  [which  persons 
of  other  religions  have  taken,  with  the  consciousness  either  of 
swearing  a  falsehood,  or  of  swearing  what  they  do  not  under- 
stand, when  they  swear  that  the  Catholic  worship  is  idola- 
trous^ as  likewise  in  their  bearing  the  infamy  or  perjury  rather 
than  the  guilt  of  it.  In  fact,  the  wfiole  iatter  part  of  the  De- 
claration is  swelled  out  with  implied  charges  against  Ca- 
tholics, of  evading  the  obligation  of  oaths  by  '  equivocations, 
mental  reservations,  and  Papal  dispensations,'  which  vile  ex- 
pedients, if  they  actually  possessed  them,  it  is  self-evident, 
would  render  the  whole  Declaration  nugatory. 

General  Thornton,  in  his  late  Parliamentary  Speech,  against 
the  Declaration^  which  pronounces  the  Catholics  guilty  of 
Idolatry,  takes  up  the  subject  on  the  grounds  just  stated,  that 
is  to  say,  upon  Protestant  grounds.  Accordingly,  he  feelingly 
appeals  to  the  Members  of  Parliament  themselves,  whether  it 
be  not  '  abhorrent  from  their  religious  and  moral  feelings,'  to 
charge  their  fellow  Christians  upon  oath,  with  the  guilt  of 
idolatr}',  while  they  not  only  clear  themselves  of  that  crime,  but 
also  were  acquitted  of  it  by  the  most  learned  Protestant  Bishops 
and  Divines  this  country  could  boast  of,  when  the  Declaration 
was  devised.*  The  general  then  argues  as  follows  :  '  How  is 
it  to  be  accounted  for,  on  any  just  principle,  that  those,  who, 
preparatory  to  their  going  into  holy  orders,  are  called  upon  to 
subscribe  to  the  3  9  Articles  of  Religion,  after  it  has  been  their 
duty  to  make  this  subject  their  particular  study,  should  only 
be  required  to  consider  the  practice  as  having  given  occasion  to 
many  superstitions,  when  the  Members  of  both  Houses  of  Par- 
liament, on  taking  their  seats,  are  obliged  to  declare,  that  they 
solemnly  and  sincerely,  in  the  presence  of  God,  do  believe  the 
practice  not  only  to  be  superstitious,  but  likewise  idolatrous  9 
—Let  me  beseech  the  House  to  consider  well  the  consequences 

♦  Such  as  the.  Bishops  Jeremy  Taylor,  Blandford,  Monta2:ue,  Forbes,  Gunning, 
iirchbishop  Sheldon,  Prebendary  Thorndikc,  Chillintrwortli,  kc.  When  the  De- 
claration was  under  consideration  in  the  House  of  Peers,  Bishop  (Junnin,^,  of  Ely, 
protested  that  he  could  not  in  conscience  swear  it.  Burnetts  Hist,  of  his  own 
Timg, 


Postscript,  337 

of  it.' Here  the  Rt.  Rev.  Prelate  chooses  to  make  a  vigor- 
ous assault  upon  the  General,  by  way  of  proving  that  the  law 
requires  no  stronger  declarations  against  the  Catholics,  from 
Members  of  Parliament,  than  it  does  from  the  Clergy  of  the 
Establishment ;  and  that  the  latter,  in  subscribing  the  39  Arti- 
cles,  do,  in   fact,  charge    the  Catholics  with  idolatry.      Let 
us  now  attend   to  his   proofs.     He  says  :  '  The  Articles,  be- 
sides saying  that  the  doctrine  of  Transubstantiation  hiis  given 
occasion  to  many  superstitions,  say  moreover,  that  it  is  repug- 
nant to  the  plain  sense  of  scripture,  arid  overthrowcth  the  nature 
of  a  Sacrament :  and  that  the  Sacrament  was  not,  by  ChrL  ^'5 
ordinance,  reserved,  carried  about,  lifted  up,  and  worshipped.^ 
Atqui: — Ergo. Now,  my  Lord,  I  appeal  to  your  Lord- 
ship's theological  learning,  first,  whether  a  thousand  tenets  and 
practices  may  not  be  repugnant  to  scripture,  and  may  not  over- 
throw the  nature  of  a  Sacrament,  without  constituting  idolatry^ 
Secondly,  whether  a  Member  of  Parliament,  for  example,  or 
his  worship  the  Mayor,  or  a  worshipful  Alderman,  or  any  man's 
own  wife,  whom  he  has  married  according  to  the  form  in  The 
Common  Prayer  Book,  may  not  be  reserved,  and  carried  about, 
and  lifted  up,  and  worshipped,  without  inuking  such  a  person 
an  object  of  idolatry  ?     In  case  your  Lordship  answers  these 
two  questions,  as  every  other  man  of  sense  will  do,  it  is  evident 
at  once,  that  the  Act  of  30   Car.  IL  by  the  Declaration  in 
question,  does  impose  an  infinitely  heavier  burden  on  the  con- 
sciences of  Parliament-men,  than  the  39  Articles  do  on  those 
of  Churchmen.     Thus  it  is  demonstrated,  that  the  Riglit  Rev. 
Bishop  has  made  a  false  attack  on  the  gallant  General ;  and 

that  he  has  been  completely  beaten  on  his  own  ground. As 

to  the  Prelate's  disingenuous  statements  of  the  arguments  in 
my  foregoing  Letters  on  the  Real  Presence  and  Transubstan- 
^iation,  and  his  feeble  nibbling  at  them,  in  his  Appendix,  I  sliall 
leave  them  to  make  whatever  eflect  they  are  capal)le  of  making 
on  the  minds  of  intelligent  readers,  satisfving  myself  with  bare- 
ly requesting  them,  after  they  have  perused  the  Prelate's  state- 
ments and  objections,  to  look  back  again  upon  the  arguments 
themselves. 

In  conclusion,  my  Lord,  I  am  so  little  apprehensive  that  the 
Catechism  and  the  defence  of  it,  put  together,  will  iufhice  a 
single  member  of  the  Great  Universal  Church  to  (juit  wliai  the 
Prelate,  whimsically  and  by  Antonomasia,  calls  The  (irand 
Schism  of  the  sixteenth  century,  that  I  migiit  safely  promise, 
without  danger  of  being  called  u\)ou  to  make  n^.y  promise  good, 
that,  upon  satisfactory  proof  oC  this  having  happened  in  one 

2  U 


333  Postscript, 

instance,  I  would  furnish  a  second  instance  in  myself.  Nor 
am  I,  in  the  least,  fearful  that  a  single  Peer  or  Gentleman,  who 
is  not  otherwise  induced  to  vote  in  Parliament  against  tlie  Ca- 
tholic Claims,  Nvill  be  iiillucnced  to  do  so  by  these  episcopal 
lectures.  All  1  dread  is,  that,  as  the  Catechism  is  now  reduced 
in  size  and  expense,  for  the  evident  purpose  of  being  widely 
circulated  among  the  furious  jumpers  of  Wales,  and  the  no  less 
ignorant  and  infuriate  mobility  of  the  metropolis,  who  have  al- 
ready deepjy  imbibed  liis  Lordship's  grand  principle  of  Pro- 
testantism, the  swearing  against  Popery,  they  may  be  worked 
up  by  it  to  equal  demonstrations  of  zeal  with  those  which  we 
witnessed  in  the  former  champion  of  Protestantism,  Lord 
George  Gordon,  and  his  associators.  These,  we  remember, 
argued  the  Catholic  Question  against  Members  of  the  Legisla- 
ture with  their  fists  and  clubs,  confuted  the  Catholics  by  burn- 
ing down  their  chapels  and  houses,  and  demonstrated  the  purity 
of  their  Religion,  by  demolishing  the  prisons  and  storming  the 
Bank. 

I  have  the  honour  to  remain,  my  Lord, 

Your  Lordship's  obedient  Servant, 

J.  M.  D.  D. 
Wolverhamvfon.  March  7,  1819» 


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